Kitty Fisher with a parrot by Reynolds Joshua

Kitty Fisher is an English model and a courtesan. The daughter of the chaser, Lutheran. Famous for its beauty and avarice. She was very famous and in demand. At one time competed with another famous beauty, the Countess of Coventry, and Kitty was the mistress of her husband, Earl of Coventry.

In the 1760s, the famous Casanova visited England. He was offered to spend the night with Kitty for her usual price – 100 pounds sterling. He refused, explaining this by saying that Kitty spoke only English, and Casanova preferred to talk with his mistress only in French. During life and after the death of Kitty Fisher was the heroine of numerous pamphlets, obscene images, she was envious, she was cursed. And she died of lead poisoning, as she abused cosmetics, in particular, leaden white, which were poisonous.

Kitty was Reynolds’s favorite model. Why did he portray her with a parrot? Perhaps, after catching a minute, when Kitty, without posing, was amusing herself with her pet? Or maybe he wanted to show that not only men are subject to it, but a parrot can easily speak?