Marion Margaret Violet Manners, Duchess of Rutland (née Lindsay; 7 March 1856 – 22 December 1937) was a British artist and noblewoman. A granddaughter of the 24th Earl of Crawford, she married Henry Manners in 1882. She was styled as the Marchioness of Granby from 1888 to 1906, when Manners succeeded as Duke of Rutland. She had five children, including the 9th Duke of Rutland and the socialite Lady Diana Cooper. Though she had no formal training as an artist, the Duchess painted portraits of her social circle. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_Manners,_Duchess_of_Rutland] When Colonel Charles Lindsay noticed what a talented artist his 5-year-old daughter was, he asked the Pre-Raphaelite Edward Burne-Jones to teach the little girl art. Burne-Jones replied ‘Do not give her lessons. Let her make studies of herself before a looking glass. She will never find a more sedate model to sit for her.’ It was on this advice that Marion Margaret Violet Lindsay, later Violet Manners, Marchioness of Granby and Duchess of Rutland, began her artistic career. Violet was considered the ‘queen’ of ‘The Souls’, a fashionable aristocratic social circle that favoured intellectual pursuits and avant-garde artistic tastes. Drawn together by the death of Right Honourable Laura Lyttelton, Violet and her friends, Lady Brownlow, Lady Elcho and Margot Tennant formed a close group that shared interest in art, literature and all things cultural. They gathered like-minded people to them and were known for a while as ‘The Select’ and ‘The Gang’, until Lord Beresford called them ‘The Souls’ after observing that they sat around talking about each other’s souls..... [https://artuk.org/discover/stories/violet-manners-aristocrat-and-portraitist-to-the-souls/]