Here we display important portraits of key figures from the beginnings of the Hospital including William Hogarth’s portrait of the institution’s founder, Thomas Coram. Before the creation of this gallery space, this portrait, along with other 18th-century portraits, used to hang in the girls’ dining room.
Visitors to the Hospital might attend a service in the Chapel to hear the children sing, or even be invited in to see the children eat and sleep, perhaps a more respectable alternative to viewing the ‘lunatics’ at Bedlam, the popular name for Bethlem Hospital. The Foundling Hospital’s art collection was also a draw, and Hogarth and his fellow artists were hopeful of attracting new patrons and commissions through these visits.
