In "Time Smoking a Picture," William Hogarth criticizes art connoisseurs who believe that visual signs of age, particularly the darkening of the varnish, are desirable in Old Master paintings as they indicate importance and value. Instead, Hogarth suggests that the effects of time are, in fact, ruining paintings. This print, intended for a learned audience, features the figure of Father Time, whose scythe has carelessly fallen through the left side of a canvas propped on an easel. The print's title is a reference to the illicit process that was sometimes used to artificially age oil paintings.