How does this artwork elucidate its Commissioning?
The work was commissioned by Mary Edwards of Kensington, a consistent patron of Hogarth's. Miss Edwards, who had inherited a sum of more than £50,000 a year at the age of twenty-four, was considered eccentric, having common lawed married a son of the fourth Duke of Hamilton, Lord Anne Hamilton whom she discarded when he turned out to be profligate. On this occasion she engaged the services of Hogarth with the specific intent of commissioning a painting that would humorously mock what she considered to be the ridiculous fashions and indulgences of the upper class of the time, and "female adornment". It is reported that she did this as an act of vengeance, as she had been ridiculed by the type of people scoffed at in the painting. For a price of sixty guineas, Hogarth agreed to fulfil her request, but it is known that he was not particularly fond of his work; Hogarth often felt less enthusiastic about productions for which a specific commission was made, that were executed to order.
guinea Lord Anne Hamilton Mary Edwards profligate vengeance