Kitty Fisher was one of the most famous Shady Ladies of early 18th century London—so famous that she still survives in the child’s rhyme “Lucy Locket lost her pocket/Kitty Fisher found it” and so on. Fisher was an early example of a celeb, and she used portraits to get publicity, including this one, which shows her holding an elegant cloth up to block the public’s view of her bosom. The painting contains a joke about her name in the form of a kitty fishing in a goldfish bowl—in the side of which you can see reflected the curious public at the window. Curious about the scandalous ladies of the past? Come on the Shady Ladies tour!
