A Rake's Progress is a series of paintings by William Hogarth that tells the story of a man named Tom Rakewell who inherits a fortune from his father but squanders it through a life of debauchery and vice. The series consists of eight paintings that depict different stages of Tom's downfall, from his initial inheritance to his eventual demise in a mental asylum. The paintings are a satirical commentary on the moral and social consequences of living a life of excess and immorality.