A UNIQUE PORTRAIT BY CELEBRATED AMERICAN ARTIST JOHN SINGER SARGENT HAS BEEN BOUGHT BY POWIS CASTLE. PORTRAIT OF THE HON. VIOLET LANE FOX, BARONESS DARCY DE KNAYTH, COUNTESS OF POWIS c.1910-14, BY SARGENT WAS BOUGHT WITH THE HELP OF A £25,000 GRANT FROM THE ART FUND TOWARDS A TOTAL OF £50,000. THE CHARCOAL DRAWING DEPICTS COUNTESS VIOLET, THE WIFE OF THE 4th EARL OF POWIS, WITH HER HAIR PULLED UP IN THE FASHIONABLE BOUFFANT STYLE OF THE TIME, LOOKING EXPECTANTLY TOWARDS HER LEFT. A GAUZE SCARF WRAPPED AROUND HER NECK ADDS STYLE AND GRANDEUR TO HER POSE. VIOLET IS DRAWN AS A STRONG INDIVIDUAL AND A TRUE EDWARDIAN ARISTOCRAT REFLECTING HER INDEPENDENT AND PERSUASIVE CHARACTER. PORTRAIT OF THE HON. VIOLET LANE FOX, BARONESS DARCY DE KNAYTH, COUNTESS OF POWIS HAD BEEN PART OF A PRIVATE COLLECTION UNTIL IT WAS BOUGHT FOR PUBLIC DISPLAY BY NATIONAL TRUST OWNED POWIS CASTLE. NOW ACQUIRED FOR NATIONAL TRUST'S PERMANENT COLLECTIONS, THE PORTRAIT HANGS IN THE LOWER TOWER BEDROOM, WHICH WAS COUNTESS VIOLET'S BEDROOM, AS THE MOST POWERFUL REPRESENTATION OF 20th CENTURY PORTRAITURE IN THE CASTLE'S IMPRESSIVE COLLECTION. OTHER GEMS AT THE CASTLE INCLUDE AN ELIZABETHAN MINIATURE OF LORD HERBERT OF CHIRBURY BY ISAAC OLIVER AND 19th CENTURY WORKS BY SIR FRANCIS GRANT. ONLY ONE OTHER PORTRAIT OF VIOLET HANGS IN THE CASTLE, A DEPICTION OF HER AS A YOUNG WOMAN. THE NEW ACQUISITION COMPLEMENTS THE YOUNGER PORTRAIT BY SHOWING HER IN HER LATER YEARS CONVEYING THE FORMIDABLE PERSONA SHE DEVELOPED.
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