Portrait of Lady Helen Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon, 1904 (oil on canvas)

Helen Venetia Duncombe Vincent, Vicountess D'Abernon (1866-1954). Beautiful daughter of the Earl of Feversham, when she married the handsome financier and diplomat Sir Edgar Vincent (1857-1941) in 1890, she soon became a celebrated London hostess. She was a member of “The Souls,” a salon of prominent intellectuals that included Henry James and Edith Wharton. Patroness to English artists and museums. She also welcomed the leading intellectual figures to her salon, including American writers Henry James and Edith Wharton and prominent statesmen George Curzon and Arthur Balfour. She was also drawn to the romantic history of her namesake Venice, and the Vincents purchased the Palazzo Giustiniani on the Grand Canal where this painting was situated.