Catherine Maria Fischer, known as Kitty Fisher, was a prominent British courtesan. From her teen years onwards, Fisher carefully developed her public image, which was boosted by attention from Sir Joshua Reynolds and other artists. By emphasizing Fisher's beauty, audacity, and charm, portraits and newspaper and magazine articles promoted her reputation and prompted spectators to view her with redoubled awe. She was one of the world's first celebrities famous not for being an actress, musician or member of the royalty, but simply for being famous. Her life exemplifies the emergence of mass media publishing and fame in an era when capitalism, commercialism, global markets, and rising emphasis on public opinion were transforming England.
Early life and courtesanship
Born in London, she was the daughter of John Henry Fischer and Ann Fischer. According to some sources, she was originally a milliner, whom either Commodore Augustus Keppel, second son of the Earl of Albemarle or perhaps Lieutenant-General Anthony George Martin reportedly introduced to London high life. With a flair for publicity, she became known for her affairs with men of wealth. Her appearance and dress were scrutinized and copied, scurrilous broadsheets and satires upon her were printed and circulated, and several portraits of her by Joshua Reynolds, including one in which she posed as Cleopatra Dissolving the Pearl, were engraved. Prints from these engravings were sold to thousands of her fans, making Kitty Fisher one of the first "pin-up" glamour girls. In one famous incident, on 12 March 1759, Kitty Fisher fell off her horse while riding in St James's Park, apparently exposing that she wore no underpants. Scores of broadsheets, ballads, and prints mocked her, playing on the pun of being a fallen woman. But Fisher was not one to be outdone and immediately seized public attention for her own ends by having her portrait painted by Joshua Reynolds, the most prominent painter in England. Her fame spread throughout Europe. When he visited London in 1763, the famous Italian lover Giacomo Casanova met Fisher and wrote: It is unclear to what extent Casanova's account is to be trusted, as similar stories of a currency or bank-note sandwich were told about several other women who were Fisher's contemporaries. His insistence that Fisher spoke only English is contradicted by other sources. It is possible Casanova sought to link his name to Fisher's due to her celebrity. Fisher maintained a famous rivalry with Maria Gunning, who had become Lady Coventry after a calculated insertion into the marriage market orchestrated by Gunning's mother. Fisher's rumoured affair with Lord Coventry several years later sparked the rivalry. Giustiniana Wynne, visiting London at the time, wrote: Fisher's retort to Lady Coventry shows her intentions to marry a Lord and thus ascend social class by means of marriage, in much the same way as Gunning herself. Fisher's cynical assessment of the gender politics of the day shows an awareness of the constraints on single women with a mind towards greater social mobility, but also serves as a condemnation of the Gunning girls for positioning themselves to marry wealthy, powerful men, merely for their own means and preservation. Wynne also wrote that:
The first artist known to have painted her was Joshua Reynolds. In addition to the portraits made famous through engraved prints that were marketed directly to the public, he did several other painting of Fisher that suggest a more intimate, private view. Some of these appear to be unfinished studies. Nathaniel Hone painted her at least once in 1765, at the height of her popularity, and possibly a second time as well. His famous painting, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, shows her with a kitten, which is trying to get at a goldfish in a bowl. Reflected in the bowl are the faces of a crowd of people, looking through a window. Besides sitting multiple times for Hone and Sir Joshua Reynolds, she may have been painted by Philip Mercier, James Northcote, and Richard Purcell, among others. Apart from the letters of Giustiniana Wynne, she is mentioned in the diaries and letters of people as varied as Madame D'Arblay and Horace Walpole. In 1766, she married John Norris, son of the M.P. for Rye and grandson of Admiral Sir John Norris. She came to live at her husband's family house, Hemsted. Some sources say she settled into the proper role of mistress of Hemsted, building up Norris's fortune and enjoying the company of the local folk, who liked her for her generosity to the poor. Unfortunately, she died only four months after her marriage, some sources say from the effects of lead-based cosmetics, some from smallpox or consumption, in 1767. She was buried in Benenden churchyard dressed in her best ball gown.
Legacy
Fisher is mentioned in the nursery rhymeLucy Locket: Music publisher Peter Thompson also published a country dance bearing her name in Volume II of Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances published in 1764. During her lifetime, numerous books and articles claiming to tell her lifestory were published, although these were spurious and make it difficult to separate biographical facts from the myth of Kitty Fisher. She was also included as a character in several eighteenth-century novels, including Chrysal by Charles Jonstone. Paulette Goddard played her in the 1945 blockbuster filmKitty, released by Paramount Pictures. A fictionalized version of Fisher appeared in the 1991 Channel Four historic musical fantasy Ghosts of Oxford Street, played by Kirsty MacColl.
