This Painting Made Everyone Cringe
This piece is called Pope Makes Love To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu by William Frith. It’s a painting of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the famous English poet Alexander Pope.
2022-12-21 19:00:00 - Art Deco
Mary was an amazing poet in her own right, but she is perhaps best known as the person that brought smallpox inoculation/variolation to England.
This painting captures the exact moment the two friends became bitter enemies.
Imagine a rejection so bad, it was still relevant a century after the events allegedly took place.
When Frith presented this piece at the Royal Academy, people hated it. Alexander Pope was already seen as one of the greatest English poets and everyone thought this painting was a slap in the face to his legacy.