Portrait of Mary Victoria Leiter

Mary Victoria Leiter was an American heiress who became Lady Curzon on her marriage to the future Viceroy of India, George Curzon. Franz von Lenbach, the celebrated Munich portrait painter known as the 'painter of princes,' depicted her around 1901 in the formal manner he had developed for European aristocracy and social luminaries. Lenbach's portrait practice required sitters of distinction, and Lady Curzon — then at the height of her social prominence as a Viceregal consort — was exactly the kind of subject his clientele expected. The portrait hangs at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, the Curzon family seat.

Lenbach applies his characteristic technique to this portrait of Lady Curzon: an old-master dark background against which the face emerges with dramatic chiaroscuro. His handling of the face is meticulous and flattering without being sycophantic. The costume and jewelry are rendered with the attention to material luxury appropriate to a portrait of the Vicereine of India.