Oil on canvas, 15.9cm by 20.3cm; together with a stipple engraving of the clergyman by the same hand.
The oil sketch is an important fragment from a set of pictures called ‘The Happy Marriage’ or ‘The Country Marriage’, which represented a virtuous way of life.
It was conceived by Hogarth as a contrast to his famous ‘Marriage a-la-Mode’ series representing the evils of fashionable city life.
The fragment was part of ‘The Marriage Procession’, one of six or seven canvases which remained unfinished at the time of Hogarth’s death and were sold by his widow in 1780.
