Lady Montagu

by Boo Deity

‘An honest ode and portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who once migrated through the United Kingdom and Turkey via stagecoach with her children during the smallpox pandemic. Smallpox killed 3 out of 10 people who were affected by it, and in the 19th Century alone, killed over 300 million people in Europe. Lady Montagu initiated and advocated the purpose of vaccine through Europe, her son was the first Westerner to ever receive experimental inoculation. Her ambitious travels are told in letters sent from posts across Europe, Istanbul, and Turkey, she is also remembered as a distinguished poet. Middlethorpe Hall was a residence for Lady Montagu and her children through the smallpox pandemic.

Lady Montagu would be mortified to find her letters and poetry had been published. She knew that her smart observations and frank style would have ruined her reputation as a woman in 18th Century Europe. She kept her writings close to her and edited them often to reflect a more thoughtful account of her research and findings in the pandemic-devastated towns she visited. Just in case the letters were not burned, as she requested, and were found to be published, Lady Montagu edited the letter copy to represent herself in a more honest light.

This painting is inspired by the witty genius of Lady Montagu’s letters, and the story of how they became published. Her prolific writings makeup the background of this artwork, by Pop-Art Painter, Boo Deity. Boo Deity finds humor in Lady Montagu’s re-working of her personal letters. Using plant paints, by Placrylic, and chalk, Boo Deity reflects the experimental nature of Lady Montagu’s journey, and through new mediums, the artist unearths a humorous joy in Lady Montagu’s edited letters. The subject of the artwork, Lady Montagu’s hands and face, tell the story of beautiful skin, ruined by smallpox, having found their purpose is more than to be an object of beauty. Fitting the theme of migration, Lady Montagu not only traveled in sometimes awful conditions to personally inoculate anyone she encountered to prevent smallpox, her edited letters morphed into an insightful account of feminism and a medical revelation that would change the course of human history.'