The sexual revolution in 18C England & her colonies

An article appeared in The Guardian about a little known sexual revolution in 18C England. It was written by Faramerz Dabhoiwala about his book, The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution.

Here are a few snippets. "Since the dawn of history, every civilisation had punished sexual immorality. The law codes of the Anglo-Saxon kings of England treated women as chattels, but they also forbade married men to fornicate with their slaves, and ordered that adulteresses be publicly disgraced, lose their goods and have their ears and noses cut off. Such severity reflected the Christian church's view of sex as a dangerously polluting force, as well as the patriarchal commonplace that women were more lustful than men and liable to lead them astray...

" When the Massachusetts settler James Britton fell ill in the winter of 1644, he became gripped by a "fearful horror of conscience" that this was God's punishment on him for his past sins. So he publicly confessed that once, after a night of heavy drinking, he had tried (but failed) to have sex with a young bride, Mary Latham. Though she now lived far away, in Plymouth colony, the magistrates there were alerted. She was found, arrested and brought back, across the icy landscape, to stand trial in Boston. When, despite her denial that they had actually had sex, she was convicted of adultery, she broke down, confessed it was true, "proved very penitent, and had deep apprehension of the foulness of her sin … and was willing to die in satisfaction to justice". On 21 March, a fortnight after her sentence, she was taken to the public scaffold. Britton was executed alongside her; he, too, "died very penitently". In the shadow of the gallows, Latham addressed the assembled crowds, exhorting other young women to be warned by her example, and again proclaiming her abhorrence and penitence for her terrible crime against God and society. Then she was hanged. She was 18 years old.

"That is the world we have left behind. Over the following century and a half it was transformed by a great revolution that laid the ground for the sexual culture of the 19th and 20th centuries, and of our own day. The most obvious change was a surge in pre- and extramarital sex. We can measure this, crudely but unmistakably, in the numbers of children conceived out of wedlock. During the 17th century this figure had been extremely low: in 1650 only about 1% of all births in England were illegitimate. But by 1800, almost 40% of brides came to the altar pregnant, and about a quarter of all first-born children were illegitimate. It was to be a permanent change in behaviour."

The article, actually a review of  Dabhoiwala's book, then goes on to explore the reasons for this sexual revolution. You can find the article here.

Detail from The Bed, etching, engraving and drypoint by Rembrandt (1646) at the British Museum

1500s-1700s Women depicted as Peace in prints

 Marcantonio (Italian printmaker, c 1470-1482-1527-1534) Peace

 Heinrich Aldegrever (German printmaker, c 1501-2-1555-61) Virtues & Vices - Peace

Jacques de Gheyn II (Dutch artist, 1565-1629) Virtues and Vices - Peace

 Thomas Burford (British painter, c.1710-79) Peace 1749

 Robert Pyle (British painter, fl c 1760-68) Peace

 Philip Dawe (British printmaker, fl c. 1750-91) Peace 1770

 Anonymous British, Peace 1798

 John Evans (British publisher and printer, fl 1790s-1820s) Peace 1798

 John Fairburn (British printer, fl 1789-1840l) Peace 1798

P Stampa (British printer, fl 1798-1817) Peace 1798

On Growing Old...Really Old

. Pierre Auguste Renoir (French artist, 1841-1919) Old Woman, Madame le Coeur


Eighty-Five
by Betty Lockwood

As I grow older, I feel younger
more eager, more full of love.
More alive the closer I move to death.
More whole the closer I move into blight.
The sweeter life grows as fervent
clamors of youth pass.
Passions of old age take deeper
flavor, ripened, more nuanced.
More easily words and affections
flow when the self-conscious gaucherie
of youth has passed.

Wholeness suddenly is mine;
ragged edges of fear hemmed.

Mirrors say Look. Do not
be afraid. You are what you are.

by Betty Lockwood from A Matriach's Song  Peter Randall Publisher, Portsmouth, NH 2001


George Wesley Bellows (American artist, 1882-1925) Aunt Fanny 1920


Christian Seybold (German artist, 1697-1768) Old Woman

Christian von Schneidau (American artist, 1893–1976) Woman Reading

Henry-Jules-Jean Geoffroy (French genre painter 1853-1924) Old Woman’s Head

Fashion! - Pretty in pink 18C Turquerie wraps with fur trim

1740-45 George Knapton (English artist, 1698–1778) Lady Throckmorton

1760s Francis Cotes (English Painter, 1726-1770) Lady Henrietta Godolphin, Duchess of Newcastle

1770 after Joshua Reynolds (English artist, 1723–1792) Portrait of a Lady

 1770s Francis Cotes (English Painter, 1726-1770) Portrait Of A Lady, Said To Be Henrietta Conyers

1771 Joshua Reynolds (English artist, 1723–1792)  Mrs Thomas Watkinson Payler

1775 Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781)  Unknown lady

1775 Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Lady in Turkish dress

 Joshua Reynolds (English artist, 1723–1792) Charlotte Grenville and her children

1770s  Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Philippine Fellenberg

Fashion! - 18C Hints of Turquerie from Austrian Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder 1751-1830

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Portrait of Jekaterina Samojlowa 1792-96


Giovanni Battista Lampi the Elder was born in Austria to fresco painter Matteo (Mattia) Lampi.  The young artist studied art under his father in Verona, & later in Salzburg. In 1773, he left his father's teaching to travel to Trento to study portraiture. He traveled next to Innsbruck; and then to Vienna, where the Emperor Joseph II appointed him a professor at the Vienna Academy in 1786. Later that same year, he was invited to Warsaw by the court of King Stanisław August Poniatowski.  He decided to stay & worked in Warsaw until the final partition of Poland.  In 1791, he moved to St. Petersburg, enticed by a hereditary knighthood offered by the Czar. In Russia he devoted himself to portrait painting.

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Empress of Russia Catherine the Great (Sophie Fredericke Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst 1729-96) dressed for a masquerade

 Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Portrait of Countess Natalia Alexandrovna Suvarova (1775-1844) 1795

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Aloysia Webber c. 1780

 Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian  painter, 1751-1830) Teréz Brunszvik de Korompa (Therese Countess von Brunsvik or Brunswick, 1775-1861)

 Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) Kordula Potocka 1790

Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder (Austrian painter, 1751-1830) 1793 Countess Catherine Stroganova

Fashion! - A little Polish Turquerie from Kazimir Wojniakowski 1772 -1812

 Kazimir Wojniakowski (Polish artist, 1772 -1812) Maria Theresa Poniatowska


Kazimierz Wojniakowski was a Polish painter & a pupil of Marcello Bacciarelli. His work as a portraitist was influenced by that of the Polish painter Józef Grassi.  Wojniakowski also produced religious works & scenes of contemporary historic events.

 Kazimir Wojniakowski (Polish artist, 1772 -1812) Izabela Czartoryska

1790s Kazimir Wojniakowski (Polish artist, 1772 -1812) Portrait of a Lady

Fashion! - Hugh Barron 1747-1791 paints a little blue & white Turquerie

Hugh Barron (British artist, 1747-1791)  Portrait of a lady, said to be Susanna, Mrs Bacon Bedingfield of Ditchingham Hall, Norfolk


Hugh Barron was the son of an apothecary in Soho, London.  The young artist became a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. After leaving Reynolds' studio, he set off for Italy, by way of Lisbon, where he stopped for some time & painted portraits. In 1771-2, he was in Rome. Returning to London, he settled in Leicester Square, & exhibited some portraits at the Royal Academy in 1782-3 & 1786.

Hugh Barron (British artist, 1747-1791) Elizabeth Mrs. John Plampin Dau of Henry Hervey Ashton c 1766

Hugh Barron (British artist, 1747-1791) Portrait of a lady in blue, c 1778

Fashion! - Jean-Baptiste Le Prince 1734-1781 paints Turquerie

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (French Painter, 1734-1781) Young woman in Turkish costume


Born to a family of ornamental sculptors & gilders, Le Prince began studying art with Francois Boucher (1703–70) around 1750. In 1754, the young artist traveled to Italy.  By 1757, Le Prince was painting for Catherine the Great at the Imperial Palace in Saint Petersburg. He traveled extensively in Russia, Lithuania, Finland, Holland, & perhaps Siberia, returning to Paris 5 years later eager to make a name for himself.  The sketches Le Prince made on his travels of exotic costumes & customs served him well, when he returned to France in 1763.  He became a copper engraver, & a genre, landscape & portrait painter. He is also credited with being the first artist to introduce aquatint into his etched & engraved plates. Upon becoming a member of the Académie Royale in 1765, Le Prince exhibited 15 paintings at that year's Salon, all Russian subjects.  The drawings he made in Russia provided the basis for a considerable body of work that added to the general taste of 18th century Europeans for exotica.   After 1770, Le Prince's health declined, & he left Paris for the French countryside.  There he painted the pastoral subjects; which he had learned from Boucher as a young man & from the 17th-century Dutch & Flemish genre & landscape painters, which he so admired.

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (French Painter, 1734-1781) Lady in Turkish Dress

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (French Painter, 1734-1781) The Fortune Teller

Fashion! - Swiss artist Jakob Emanuel Handmann 1718-1781 paints Turquerie

Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781)  Unknown lady 1775


Jakob Emanuel Handmann was the 9th child of Johann Jakob Handmann, a baker in Waldenburg, & his wife Anna Maria Rispach. Between 1735 & 1739, he apprenticed in Schaffhausen with the painter & stucco plasterer Johann Ulrich Schnetzler. The young artist then traveled to Paris, Rome & Naples. In Paris, he worked at the studio of Jean Restout II. In 1742, Handmann worked in France with Hörling Handmann painting the heads of the sitters. Later he worked in the studios of Marco Benefial & Pierre Subleyras in Rome. There he produced commercial copies of masterpieces from the Classical Antiquity & Renaissance periods.  By June 1746, he was back in Switzerland; and in 1747, he settled down in Basel, where he opened his own studio.

Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Philippine Fellenberg

Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Lady in Turkish dress 1775

Jakob Emanuel Handmann (Swiss artist, 1718-1781) Catherine Augusta Lerber Sturler

Fashion! - Frenchman Antoine de Favray 1706-1792 paints Turquerie + Knights & Ladies of Malta

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) Maltese Women


Antoine de Favray was a French painter best known for His portraits of the Ottoman Empire. In 1738, he was Mentioned as a private pupil of Jean-François de Troy II, who was then director of the Académie de France in Rome. In 1739, Antoine de Favray was registered as a student at the Académie. In 1744, the artist left Rome for Malta, remaining there for much of the rest of His career Devoting himself primarily to portraiture & amp; genre painting. His portraits of women talking together in relaxed situations are Particularly important, Because most women in the Ottoman Empire Remained almost Exclusively Within Their family settings or among other women. Already he had lived a long life, When He wrote to Chevalier de Turgot in 1788, " In spite of my weak sight, a heavy hand and an exhausted imagination, I always spend my time making something or other ... Years pile upon each other, Which does not pain me, on the contrary. For this century is the century When things happen. It is near its end and so am I, luckily " 

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) Annette Comtesse de Vergennes in Turkish Gown

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) Turkish Women

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) Portrait of a family, c 1760

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) grecques Dames en costume intérieur dans un jardin

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) Ladies of the Knights of Malta With Their Maid Servants

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) Dames de Malte if faisant visits in 1763

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) Officers of the Knights of Malta

Antoine de Favray (French painter, 1706-1792) Malta Interior (Gentlemen Only)