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Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales
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Margherita Scott-Ellis, Lady Howard de Walden (1890-1974)
Lord and Lady Howard de Walden lived at Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, from 1912. He was a passionate antiquarian, deeply interested in Wales and its language and a collector of modern art. Augustus John was first invited to Chirk in 1912 to paint Margherita's portrait. Although she attended many sittings, the end result was in her words 'a horrible picture which, after a while, he simply painted over'. John seems to have exhibited this canvas in 1917, and then to have heavily reworked it, probably in 1922.