Margaret Anderson, The Hon. Mrs Ronald Greville DBE (1863-1942)

Margaret Anderson, who became Mrs. Ronald Greville and was later created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, was one of the most influential society hostesses of Edwardian Britain, renowned for the scale and brilliance of her entertaining at Polesden Lacey, her country house in Surrey. Her portrait by Carolus-Duran in 1891 documents her at thirty-eight, well before she reached the peak of her social influence but already established as a significant figure in London and Continental social life. The National Trust's holding of this portrait at Polesden Lacey — which Mrs. Greville bequeathed to the Trust along with its contents — makes it one of the few works by Carolus-Duran that can be seen in the specific domestic context for which it was created, hanging in the house where the sitter herself lived and entertained. The commission reflects the sustained reputation of Carolus-Duran among the British upper class, who valued the particular combination of painterly freedom and social acuity that his portraits delivered.

The portrait of a celebrated society hostess demanded from Carolus-Duran the management of the specific visual challenge that such sitters presented: the projection of social authority through appearance had been refined over decades of professional entertaining, and capturing the specific quality of that projection required as much psychological as technical acuity. Mrs. Greville's fortune — inherited from William McEwan, the Scottish brewing magnate — would have been visible in the quality of her dress and jewelry, which Carolus-Duran rendered with his characteristic material precision.