Lady Ottoline Morrell

Provenance

The Artist’s Sale, Christie’s, June, 1963
English private collection

Description / Expertise

This watercolour describes one of the most flamboyant hostesses of her day. Lady Ottoline was neither beautiful nor conventional but she had great ‘style’ and desired to live her life through poetry and music. A great patron of the arts and wife of the Liberal MP Philip Morrell, she entertained many well-known artists and literary figures in Bloomsbury and at Garsington Manor, Oxfordshire. Augustus John met her in 1908 and they became great friends. She made a habit of walking over to John’s studio in Fitzroy Street where he would sketch her. This sheet probably dates from that time.