When it came to entertainment, the Victorians loved a good tragedy – especially if it involved a morality tale and a pretty girl. So when painters were choosing subjects for their “modern life” pictures, intended to hang on the walls of middle-class drawing rooms, it is maybe not so surprising that the theme of the fallen woman was a popular choice, alongside that of the railway station or the seaside. Some of these paintings can now be seen in a small but powerful exhibition at London’s Foundling Museum (to 3 January). The museum is in the former grounds of the Foundling Hospital, which was set up by Thomas Coram and opened in 1741, caring for children in a variety of ways until the building closed in 1926, when the hospital moved to the countryside of the Home Co