Twenty-one selfless women restored to their rightful place in history
Ladies of Quality & Distinction Foundling Museum, WC1
Much has been made of the men behind the Foundling Hospital: its founder, the sea captain and philanthropist Thomas Coram (1668-1751), for one, along with his friends, the painter William Hogarth, who encouraged fellow artists to donate the paintings that transformed the charity into the fundraising gallery that remains today, and composer George Frideric Handel, who staged a concert to pay for its chapel – the entire top floor of the museum is usually given over to his work and archive.
But, were it not for a group of women, Coram would never have obtained the Royal Charter he needed to establish his home for “exposed and deserted children” – or foundlings, as they were known then.
Coram spent most of the 1720s asking the country’s most powerful men to petition King George II into granting permission for the charity, but failed to achieve even one signature. In desperation, he turned to England’s richest women: duchesses, baronesses and countesses, whose survival depended on reputations that could well have been besmirched by supporting something as unseemly as illegitimate and poverty-stricken babies.
Nevertheless, between 1729 and 1735, 21 of these women signed. And, when the first petition failed, these women convinced the men around them to sign another, meaning that, by 1739, Coram had his charter.
Afterwards, though, the women were forgotten. Indeed, their contribution to his cause would have been entirely lost to history were it not for a list of names – next to the dates on which they signed his petition – in Coram’s pocket book. Now, an exhibition, Ladies of Quality
& Distinction, puts them in their rightful place, namely on the walls of the museum’s Picture Gallery, usually lined with paintings of the charity’s male governors.
Brought together for the first time, the portraits of these women, which have been borrowed from mostly private, but some public, collections throughout the UK, exude a quiet, profound gravity. It’s striking how young they all are, too – not ageing dowagers, but mothers, wives and widows in their 20s. Each portrait was chosen for its proximity to the date of signing Coram’s petition.
The role of the many other women who have been involved in the success of the hospital over its near 300-year history is explored on the lower floor of the museum, where objects such as letters and salary records help bring to light the stories of the many wet nurses, matrons and female inspectors who helped raise the children left on the Foundling’s doorstep.
As for Handel? For the next four months, portraits of two of the women who sang his oratorios – Kitty Clive and Anna Maria Strada del Po – will take centre stage on the top floor, while the illustrious German-born composer has been relegated to the archives.
Until January, at least, these women’s contributions will fill the Foundling Museum. But their stories will retain their potency long after the portraits are returned to their owners.