.1HE PORTRAIT in oils of Her Grace Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk, commissioned by the Trustees of Arundel Castle, and painted by Juliet Pannett the famous Sussex artist, was unveiled last week in the drawing room of Arundel Castle, and now hangs in the picture gallery along with the magnificent collection of portraits of successive Dukes and Duchesses of Norfolk.
It is a stunning portrait of a blue-eyed, alert and charming lady, wearing a beautiful crimson and white woollen suit of French design.
Her Grace is wearing, in this portrait, her badge and bow of office as Lord Lieutenant of the County of West Sussex, the first woman to hold this office.
In the immediate righthand foreground is her home in Arundel Park under an attractive Sussex sky.
Juliet Pannett tells me that the sittings for this portrait took place over ten months, in Arundel Castle with eight sittings of two hours each and, in addition, three further sittings for the painting of the clothes and the badge of office.
Her Grace, widow of the sixteenth Duke of Norfolk, is well known to the public for her work for Riding for the Disabled, the Spastic Society, the NSPCC, the King Edward VII Hospital, Midhurst, and for the Red Cross.
After the unveiling of the portrait, Terence Wright, Chairman of the Press Club hosted a champagne luncheon for the artist, in a Scandinavian restaurant, in the Castle Mews. in Arundel village. It is set amid a warren of attractive antique shops.