Violet Lindsay, Duchess of Rutland (1856-1937)
Sir James Jebusa Shannon RA (Auburn 1862 – London 1923)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1918 (inscribed)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
895 x 591 mm (35 1/4 x 23 1/4 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Plas Newydd, Anglesey
NT 1175974
Caption
This portrait of the second daughter of Charles Hugh Lindsay (1816–1889), granddaughter of James Lindsay, 24th Earl of Crawford and 7th Earl of Balcarres and wife of Henry John Brinsley Manners (1852–1925), Marquess of Granby, 8th Duke of Rutland was according to the artist’s inscription, given to her daughter, Marjorie Manners, Marchioness of Anglesey, by him in 1918. Champion of Aesthetic dress, here Lady Violet is wearing a cloak and operatic headdress. Possibly representing ‘Charity', her hands are dramatically clasping her cloak across her breast. She was herself a talented amateur artist and a member of the 'Souls', an avant-garde artistic group of aristocratic intellectuals. Shannon had long been a favourite portraitist of the Manners family, having painted Lady Marjorie 18 years before, a version of which also hangs at Plas Newydd, and painted this shortly before he renounced his US citizenship for a knighthood.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Violet Lindsay, Duchess of Rutland (1856-1937) by James Jebusa Shannon (Auburn, NY 1862 - London 1923), inscribed: 'To Lady Marjorie, Aug 2/18, SJ Shannon', 1918. A half-length portrait of the mother of Majorie Manners, who became the Marchioness of Anglesey in 1912. She is wearing a cloak and Russian kokoshnik headdress, with her hands clasped across her breast, drawing in her cloak below the neck.
Provenance
By inheritance from the sitter's daughter, Lady Victoria Majorie Harriet Manners, Marchioness of Anglesey (1883-1946)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: bottom right: 'To Lady Marjorie, Aug 2/18, SJ Shannon'
Makers and roles
Sir James Jebusa Shannon RA (Auburn 1862 – London 1923), artist