Page 43 - A Time and A Place Catalogue, Jorge Welsh

FIG. 23
the first governors and raise funds to cover
the costs of the hospital.8 On 14 August 1739,
the King signed the Foundling Hospital Charter
and by November, the governors and guardians
met to receive the charter at Somerset House.
These included important figures such as the
English physician Dr Richard Mead (1673-1754)
and William Hogarth, among others. The first
child was admitted to the Foundling Hospital
in 1741, in a temporary building at Hatton
Garden.9
In the same year, an opportunity emerged for
the governors to purchase the Earl of Salisbury’s support, namely by people of wealth and position
estate, an area of 22.6 hectares, in Bloomsbury
Fields. This was an excellent location for the
Foundling Hospital, as it was surrounded by
green fields. After it was bought, the merchant
and architect Theodore Jacobsen (ca. 1686-1772)
was selected to design the building, laying the
foundation stone on the 16th September 1742.
The building’s design was of utmost importance, Fig. 23
as, not only had it to be appropriate as a shelter
for abandoned children, but also it had to be T. Bowles (1695-1767) after
a destination where the fashionable society L. P. Boitard (fl. 1733-1767),
of London would want to gather. In this way, The Foundling Hospital,
the board was able to point the attention of Holborn, London: a bird's-eye
the London society to the problems and needs view of the courtyard
of the abandoned children. This dual function Engraving
of the Foundling Hospital can be seen in many England — 1753
engravings of the period, as well as in the
present punch bowl.10 © Wellcome Library, London
The Foundling Hospital gained a lot of private
in London. Eminent physicians offered their services,
while prominent artists became patrons of the
hospital. Just as in the Vauxhall Gardens, Handel
gave benefit concerts in the chapel,11 and William
Hogarth, and later Gainsborough and Reynolds,
among others, provided the Hospital with their
works of art.12 →
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