Basic Instincts - Jacqueline Riding (paperback)

Love, Passion and Violence in the Art of Joseph Highmore

Joseph Highmore (1692 - 1780) is best known as a portrait painter of the Georgian middle class. During the 1740s, however, his art radically shifted, reflecting his involvement with London's new Foundling Hospital - of which he was a governor - and its mission as a refuge for 'exposed and deserted young children'. Through his art and writings Highmore explored the cirucsmtances - from the trauma of sexual assault to the terror of public disgrace - by which parents, particularly unmarried motehrs, would be driven to abandon or even murder their new-born infants.  This culminated in a work of exceptional power, The Angel of Mercy, the centrepiece of this book.

This is the supplementary catalogue for the Foundling Museum exhibition Basic Instincts held in 2017, curated by Dr Jacqueline Riding.

About the author

Dr Jacqueline Riding specialises in British art and history of the long eighteenth century, with a current academic focus on William Hogarth, late-Stuart/early-Georgian painting, and Jacobitism. Former curator of the Palace of Westminster and Director of the Handel House Museum, she is now an author and consultant for museums, galleries, historic buildings and feature films.

Paul Holberton Publishing.