The Happy Marriage
This stencil-coloured woodcut designed by an anonymous artist c.1700 was published in London c.1750s/1760s. Woodcuts, a cheap, early form of popular paper print, were often used as decoration, for example being pinned or pasted onto the walls of taverns and homes.

A lively scene displaying contemporary and symbolic imagery and didactic messages, it extolls the perceived virtues of an enduring, church-sanctioned marriage. There would have been a second, contrasting version depicting ‘The Unhappy Marriage’!

Subscribe to read the whole article