Good morning everyone,

As you know, I usually like to showcase several women per Fem Fri to keep things fresh and relevant and to ensure a wide range of viewpoints. Sometimes, though, there's a woman… sometimes there's a woman. This is one of those weeks. I want us to spend this time together with Susan Bacon.

Susan Bacon was an 18th century housewife who commissioned this as a portrait of her husband. It's called Francis Matthew Schutz in His Bed:

She commissioned it from Hogarth! I just can't stop thinking about it.

SB: Hi, yes, I'd like to commission a portrait of my husband

WH: Do you have any ideas for the sort of thing you want

SB: Oils. Huge.

WH: What you want him to be doing

SB: Oh uhhhhhh vomiting red wine into a chamberpot

WH: Sure sounds fun. Some ladies like to include a classical reference, were you thinking…

SB: Something about how he used to be cool and hot*

WH: Great got it, think I have just the thing :)

SB: Make sure he looks like utter shit

WH: Yeah I have a sense of the piece already actually

SB: Just straight up dead inside

Enjoy art responsibly this weekend!

Alex.

*Apparently the Latin is from a poem of Horace's and the meaning boils down to 'Not long ago I kept in shape for the girls' 👀