Naughtiness Immortalized...Repeatedly

Oh Sir Francis, you rogue!

Sir Francis Dashwood has quite the reputation for his debaucheries.  Being somewhat of a king of the Hell-fire clubs and a outspoken scorner of everything sacred, Sir Francis liked to see how much mischief he could get away with.  Most of his mischief was carried out in the privacy of his own home or among a secret society so how could Sir Francis spread the word around of his dubious reputation?  Why immortalizing it in a portrait of course!

Portraits were a rarity to everyday folks and normally to have an artist immortalize you in oils you wanted to look your best so that past generations would remember you as such.  This is how Sir Francis wanted us to remember him as:

I'll let your form your own impressions.

As if the 1750s portrayal wasn't outlandish enough, Sir Francis not one but twice had himself portrayed as Saint Francis which was one step away from blasphemous, given Sir Francis' reputation for renouncing God every chance he got.  One of the portrayals can be found on a sign in the caves of his West Wycombe estate.  The other portrayal was done by his good friend, William Hogarth, and shows Dashwood kneeling before a vision of a sprawled out naked woman with a pile of questionable looking fruit at his knees.