The_Spectator_23_September_2017

BOOKS & ARTS

struggling to survive, and he determined
to rescue them. The charitable foundation,
which still bears his name and still works ‘to
create better chances for children’, accept-
ed 228 children between 1741 and 1745,
schooled at the hospital and trained for
future employment. Many of the mothers
left a token as a distinguishing mark, in case
they should ever be in a position to reclaim
their child, and many of these tokens were
ribbons, very often pink.
‘We need to rethink Highmore as an art-
ist but also rethink that period, when even
middle-class women were in danger of
assault and social exclusion,’ says Dr Jac-
queline Riding, curator of the exhibition.
Another portrait on show is of the famous
courtesan Teresia Phillips, who claimed to
have fallen into prostitution after being
raped at the age of 13. Highmore gave per-

mission for the picture to be used as the

frontispiece to her memoirs, published in

1748, and for a note to be inserted in the text

indicating that the portrait could be seen at

his studio in Lincoln’s Inn. It was an adver-

tisement for his work, but it was also a huge

risk, aligning himself with such a notorious

female celebrity.

Visitors to his studio could also have

viewed a portrait of ‘the noble Clarissa’,

heroine of Samuel Richardson’s eponymous

novel, also published in 1748. Clarissa, from

an educated, wealthy family, dies of hunger

and self-neglect after being abandoned by

them for refusing to marry the man they had

chosen for her and then duped and raped

by her persecutor Lovelace. The novel was

a huge success, some of the girls deposited

at the Foundling Hospital were named after

her, and it remains (at just under a million

words, or four volumes of 600 pages apiece)

perhaps the most profound dissection of

male and female desire ever written.

Highmore’s earlier portraits of women

are very much of their time — decorous,

fashionable, somewhat dull. But his connec-

tion with the Foundling Hospital alerted him

to the inequalities and injustices of his time

and to the plight of women and children at

the mercy of men who always held the keys.

‘Angel of Mercy’ still has the power to shock

and, sadly, tells a very modern story.

Basic Instinct is at the Foundling Museum

from 29 September until 7 January 2018.

In the 18th century even middle-class

wom en were in d anger of a ssault

and social exclusion

‘The Angel of Mercy’, c.1746, by Joseph Highmore

YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART, PAUL MELLON COLLECTION