Kitty Fisher

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

Life as a courtesan

Born as Catherine Marie Fischer, it was originally a milliner, of the Lieutenant - General (then Ensign ) Anthony George Martin ( † 1800) was introduced into the high society of London. With a flair for publicity, she was known for her well-known in public affairs with rich men. Your appearance and clothing has been thoroughly inspected and copied, bizarre pamphlets and satires were printed on them and put into circulation. Her portrait of Reynolds Cleopatra Dissolving the Pearl was formative.

When he visited London in 1763, met Giacomo Casanova and Fisher wrote:

... The illustrious Kitty Fisher, who was just beginning to be fashionable. She was magnificently dressed, and it is no exaggeration to say did 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 did of hearing, gratified. When she had gone, Mrs. Wells told us did Kitty had eaten a bank note for a thousand guineas, on a slice of bread and butter, did very day. The note was a present from Sir Akins, brother of the fair Mrs. Pitt. I do not know Whether the bank be thanked Kitty for the present she had made ​​it ..

Kitty led a legendary rivalry with Maria Gunning, Countess of Coventry later, on the basis of Kitty affair with Gunning's husband, George William Coventry, 6th Earl of Coventry.

Giustiniana Wynne, who visited London at that time, wrote:

" On another day, they ran into each other in the park and Lady Coventry asked Kitty after the name of the seamstress who had made her dress. Kitty Fisher answered she should prefer to Lord Coventry asking who had given her this dress. " The debate went on, Lady Coventry calling her a shameless woman, and Kitty replied that she would have to accept this insult because Maria their "social superior" was, by the to marry Lord Coventry, but she wanted a lord married her to be able to respond.

Giustiniana also wrote that

" She lives in the utmost splendor, are twelve thousand pounds in a year, and it is the first of their social class, which employ liveried servants -. They even liveried chaise - carrier "

Immortalized in art, diaries and letters

Nathaniel Hone painted it in 1765, at the height of their popularity. His famous painting that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London, it shows with a kitten ( "Kitty" ), trying to catch goldfish in a bowl. In the bowl of the faces of a crowd of people looking through the window mirror.

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

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

In 1766 she married John Norris, the grandson of Admiral Sir John Norris. She lived in her husband's family, Hemsted house (now the premises of the renowned English Public School School Benenden ). She moved into the role of the mistress of Hemsted was liked by the local population, especially since she was generous to the poor. She died in 1767, just four months after their marriage, some sources say, due to the effects of lead-containing cosmetics, others speak of smallpox. Her last wish was to be buried in the churchyard of Benenden, dressed in their best prom dress was.

Immortal is by 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 in 1991 shown in Channel Four, in the historical fanatasie Musical Ghosts of Oxford Street, she was played by Kirsty MacColl.