Lady Victoria Manners

Victoria Marjorie Harriet Paget, Marchioness of Anglesey (''née'' Manners; 20 December 1883 – 3 November 1946) was a British writer on art, an illustrator, and a member of the peerage.

Biography

Lady Victoria was the eldest daughter of Henry Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland, a British peer, and the former Marion Margaret Violet Lindsay, an artist. Her brother John was an art expert who became the 9th Duke of Rutland, and her sister Diana was an actor, author, and socialite.

In 1920, she coauthored (with art historian G.C. Williamson) a study of the neoclassical painter Johan Zoffany that is considered the first in-depth study of the artist. ''Johan Zoffany, R. A.: His Life and Works 1735–1810'' was published in a limited edition of 500 copies, privately printed.

She and Williamson also cowrote a study of the painter Angelica Kauffmann, one of only two women artists who were founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA). ''Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.: Her Life and Her Works'' (1924) was prompted by the discovery in the RA archives of a manuscript in Kauffmann's handwriting, written in Italian and previously untranslated, which gives an account of Kauffmann's paintings post-1781. Manners and Williamson wrote that this enabled them to "come to certain definite conclusions regarding many pictures hitherto ascribed to other artists." They included numerous reproductions in both color and black-and-white on the grounds that prior books on Kauffman had presented inadequate reproductions of her paintings.

Among her other books is one on the portrait and genre painter William Peters. She also wrote articles on art for magazines like '' The Conoisseur''.

Manners illustrated Alicia Amherst's ''London Parks and Gardens'' (1907), which is considered the first serious and deeply informed book on London's open spaces.

Marriage and children

In 1912, she married Charles Paget, 6th Marquess of Anglesey, a British peer, farmer, and soldier, and thereby became the Marchioness of Anglesey. Their wedding was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. They had six children:
* Lady Alexandra Mary Cecilia Caroline Paget (1913–1973), who married Sir Michael Duff, 3rd Baronet;
* Lady Elizabeth Hester Mary Paget (1916–1980), who married Raimund von Hofmannsthal, son of Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal and ex-husband of Ava Alice Muriel Astor;
* Lady Mary Patricia Beatrice Rose Paget (1918–1996);
* Lady Rose Mary Primrose Paget (1919–2005), who married John Francis McLaren;
* George Charles Henry Victor Paget (1922–2013), Earl of Uxbridge and later the 7th Marquess of Anglesey;
* Lady Katharine Mary Veronica Paget (1922-2017).

Residences

Up to World War I, Manners and her family lived primarily at Beaudesert, the family home of the Paget family in South Staffordshire. After the war, they moved to Plas Newydd, a large country house in Wales that features extensive ''trompe-l'œil'' murals by the artist Rex Whistler.

References

External links

Full text of ''Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.: Her Life and Her Works'' (1924)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manners, Victoria Harriet Marjorie
1883 births
1946 deaths
19th-century British women writers
20th-century British women writers
British art historians
British illustrators
Daughters of British dukes
Anglesey
Victoria
Paget family
Women art historians
British women historians