Kitty Fisher

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Joshua Reynolds : Kitty Fisher and Parrot , 1763/4

Kitty Fisher , actually Catherine Marie Fischer , († 1767 ) was a British courtesan who became famous, among other things, as a model for pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds . The pictures emphasized Fisher's beauty, boldness and charm.

Life as a courtesan

Born as Catherine Marie Fischer, she was originally a cleaner who was introduced to the higher society of London by Lieutenant-General (then ensign) Anthony George Martin († 1800). With a flair for publicity, she became known for her publicly known affairs with wealthy men. Their looks and clothing were carefully inspected and copied, and whimsical leaflets and satires were printed and circulated about them. Her portrait of Reynolds Cleopatra Dissolving the Pearl was formative.

While visiting London in 1763, Giacomo Casanova met Fisher and wrote:

... the illustrious Kitty Fisher, who was just beginning to be fashionable. She was magnificently dressed, and it is no exaggeration to say that she had on diamonds worth five hundred thousand francs. Goudar told me that if I liked I might have her then and there for ten guineas. I did not care to do so, however, for, though charming, she could only speak English, and I liked to have all my senses, including that of hearing, gratified. When she had gone, Mrs Wells told us that Kitty had eaten a bank-note for a thousand guineas, on a slice of bread and butter, that very day. The note was a present from Sir Akins, brother of the fair Mrs Pitt. I do not know whether the bank thanked Kitty for the present she had made it.

Kitty had a legendary rivalry with Maria Gunning , later the Countess of Coventry, over Kitty's affair with Gunnings husband, George William Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry .

Giustiniana Wynne , who was visiting London at the time, wrote:

"Another day they ran into each other in the park and Lady Coventry asked Kitty the name of the dressmaker who had made her dress. Kitty Fisher replied that she should ask Lord Coventry who had given her this dress." The argument went on, Lady Coventry called her a rude woman, and Kitty replied that she had to accept this insult because Maria was her "social superior" by marrying Lord Coventry, but she wanted to marry a lord for her to be able to answer.

Giustiniana also wrote that

"She lives in the greatest possible splendor, [6] spends twelve thousand pounds a year, and she is the first of her social class to employ liveried servants - she even has liveried chaise- bearers."

Immortalized in art, diaries and letters

Nathaniel Hone painted it in 1765, at the height of its popularity. His famous painting, which now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London, shows her with a kitten ("Kitty") trying to catch goldfish in a bowl. The faces of a crowd looking through the window are reflected in the bowl.

In addition to multiple sessions for Sir Joshua Reynolds, she was painted by Philip Mercier , James Northcote and Richard Purcell, among others .

Apart from the letters to Giustiniana Wynne, she is mentioned in diaries and letters from people like Madame D'Arblay and Horace Walpole .

In 1766 she married John Norris, the grandson of Admiral Sir John Norris. She lived in the house of her husband's family, Hemsted (now the premises of the prestigious Benenden English Public School ). She switched to the role of Mistress of Hemsted, was liked by the local people, especially as she was generous to the poor. She died in 1767, just four months after their wedding, some sources say, due to the effects of leaded cosmetics and others speak of smallpox. Her last wish was to be buried in the Benenden churchyard, dressed in her best ball gown.

She is immortal through the nursery rhyme Lucy Locket : "Lucy Locket lost her pocket, Kitty Fisher found it; But ne'er a penny was there in't Except the binding round it."

The music publisher Peter Thompson also published a country dance with her name, in Volume 2 of Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances (publ. 1764).

A fictional version of Kitty Fisher was shown on Channel Four in 1991 in the historical fanatical musical Ghosts of Oxford Street , played by Kirsty MacColl .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A German descent is also considered possible, this is based on Sir Joshua Reynolds, who gave her name constantly as "Fischer" and once as "Fisscher", see also
    John Joseph Knight :  Fisher, Catherine Maria . In: Leslie Stephen (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 19:  Finch - Forman. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1889, pp. 53 - 54 (English) ..
  2. ↑ Reynolds' fancy piece of her, Kitty Fisher as Cleopatra Dissolving the Pearl (1759), is at the Tate Gallery ( on-line catalog entry ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ); to reinforce the identification, Reynolds posed her in the same manner as a Cleopatra by Angelo Trevisani in the Galleria Spada, Rome (Edgar Wind, "'Borrowed Attitudes' in Reynolds and Hogarth" Journal of the Warburg Institute , 2 .2 (October 1938 ), pp. 182-185, illus. pls 30e, 30f). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tate.org.uk
  3. ↑ In London And Moscow: The English by Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
  4. ↑ bayntun-history.com
  5. ↑ quoted from A Venetian Affair by Andrea di Robilant
personal data
SURNAME Fisher, kitty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fischer, Catherine Marie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British courtesan
DATE OF BIRTH 18th century
DATE OF DEATH 1767