Marcia Christoforides (1909-1994) became Lady Dunn through her marriage in 1942 to Sir James Dunn, a financier 36 years her senior, who died in 1956. In 1963 she married Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, the Canadian/British newspaper publisher and ‘backstage politician’, who was 31 years her senior. Beaverbrook died the following year – making her a wealthy widow twice over.

‘Christofor’, as she was known, was a keen horsewoman and racehorse owner (her colours being green and brown). In 1971 she escaped a car bomb placed by the Angry Brigade which was detected before it went off. Imperious but astute, she was a generous benefactor to many causes. Our picture was painted in the same year as Zinkeisen’s portrait of Lord Beaverbrook, now in the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, New Brunswick, but they are very different; both pictures were probably commissioned by him. The heart device in the top right corner, a personal touch, is an acrostic device, spelling ‘DEAREST’ with Diamond, Emerald, Amethyst, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire and Topaz.

In the background, above unusually calm seas, are the formidable cliffs on the coast of New Brunswick in Canada which are usually battered by terrible storms. The cliffs are a personal reference, for Beaverbrook saw himself as the tempestuous sea, as this passage in his autobiography attests: ‘I am the victim of the Furies. On the rock bound coast of New Brunswick the waves break incessantly. Every now and then comes a particularly dangerous wave smashing viciously into the rock. It is called “The Rage”. That’s me.’ (A Study in Power and Frustration, 1956). Christofor is projected by this complex painting as a calming influence, a formidable but sympathetic figure, composed and elegant.