Sir Edward John Poynter, Bart., P.R.A., R.W.S. 1836-1919

Frederick Anthony White Esq, Trevor House, Belgrave Place, London, by 1925;

His executors' sale, Christie's, London, 20 April 1934, lot 31, bought by Nicoll 10gns;

Ian Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford (1917-2002);

Thence by descent to his wife

On loan to Leighton House, London, May 1925

The re-emergence of this delicate portrait, of one of the most beautiful, talented and sympathetic of later Victorian ladies, is of considerable interest. The work was last seen in public in London, when it was exhibited at Leighton House in 1925. It shows the young Violet Lindsay as a Vestal, dressed in a loose costume that reflected her own pronounced views on dress. Her celebrated beauty, the haunting deep-set eyes, auburn hair and classical profile, are perfectly captured by Sir Edward Poynter, later both Director of the National Gallery and President of the Royal Academy. Poynter was probably introduced to the sitter by her cousin, Sir Coutt Lindsay, Bt., who in 1877, only three years before this portrait was painted, had opened the Grosvenor Gallery which rapidly became the preferred exhibiting arena for Poynter, Burne-Jones, Watts, Lord Leighton and Whistler.

The tonality of this portrait, which shows little sign of fading, aptly reflects both the ‘greenery yallowry’ of the Grosvenor Gallery artists and the sitter’s own preference for muted colours. Her daughter, Lady Diana Cooper, recounts in her Memoirs that her mother had strict aesthetic tastes ‘In colour she liked only the faded and subdued. Even too vivid curtains were placed on the lawn in summer to fade. For her clothes she chose non-colours; creams, fawns, soft blue greys and blue greens, the hues of Chinese ceramics'’(Jane Abdy and Charlotte Gere, The Souls, 1984, p.48).

Violet Lindsay was born in 1856, the daughter of the Hon. Charles Lindsay, 2nd son of James Earl of Crawford and Balcarres. The Lindsays were a highly artistic family – collectors, practitioners and writers. Her uncle Lord Crawford was the author of Sketches of the History of Christian Art, published in 1847, and her cousins were both Sir Coutt Lindsay and the great late nineteenth century connoisseur Lord Wantage. The Lindsay family life oscillated between Haigh Hall in Lancashire, Balcarres in Fife and London.

At an early age, Violet Lindsay’s talent for drawing was recognised, and her father sort advice from Burne-Jones as to her artistic education. During the early 1870s she travelled to Italy, and by 1877 was exhibiting her work, both sculpture and portrait drawings, first at the Grosvenor Gallery, and then at the Royal Academy. She was particularly adept at ethereal portrait studies in pencil, influenced by the late graphic work of Burne-Jones.

In 1882 she married Henry Manners, Lord Granby later 8th Duke of Rutland. She moved to his family’s great house, 16 Arlington Street in London, and later to Belvoir Castle and Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. It was for the latter she created one of the most poignant memorials – that to her young son Lord Haddon who died aged 9 in 1894 (Memorial in the Chapel, Haddon Hall: plaster maquette, Tate Britain). Of her other children, her second son John became the 9th Duke of Rutland and married Kathleen Tennant, her eldest daughter Margaret married Lord Anglesey and was the patroness of Rex Whistler, her daughter Violet married Lord Elcho who was tragically killed during the Great War and she subsequently married Guy Benson. The last daughter Diana married Duff Cooper and as Lady Diana Cooper, later Lady Newman became one of the most celebrated members of Twentieth Century society.

Violet Lindsay herself was a central figure in The Souls, that coterie of intelligent aristocratic men and women whose lively interest in the world of ideas set them apart from their contemporaries. In the famous photograph of the dinner given by Lord Curzon for The Souls in 1898 Violet, Duchess of Rutland, sat next to the host. The other guests included Arthur Balfour, Lady Desborough, Lord and Lady Windsor, and Lord and Lady Elcho. Lady Elcho also sat for Poynter six years after Violet Lindsay, as did another member of the group Lady Cowper.