• Woman in Wood | Margaret, Duchess of Argyll
  • Woman in Wood | Margaret, Duchess of Argyll
  • Woman in Wood | Margaret, Duchess of Argyll
  • Woman in Wood | Margaret, Duchess of Argyll

Woman in Wood | Margaret, Duchess of Argyll

Size (h x w cm):
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Do you feel passionate about women's rights? Love stories of women? Know a strong woman who has come into her power?

This print was inspired by "Margaret, Duchess of Argyll" (ca. 1931) painted by Gerald Brockhurst (1890 – 1978). I sketched her in the Tate Britain, London, and then worked from my sketch. Margaret is part of my "Reclaiming the Feminine" series. Read more about it here.

Margaret (1912 – 1993) was the only child of an American self-made millionaire. She  was pregnant at 15 and had a secret abortion in London. Margaret was presented at court and was known as the debutante of the year. When she married Charles Francis Sweeny in 1933 Norman Hartnell made her wedding dress and traffic in Knightsbridge was blocked for three hours – Margaret was always to be associated with glamour and elegance. She had three children with Sweeny. In 1943 Margaret survived a near fatal fall down a lift shaft. After her divorce she married Ian Douglas Campbell, 11th Duke of Argyll, whose castle she restored with her money. The Duke was addicted to alcohol, gambling and prescription drugs, was violently and emotionally abusive. He accused Margaret of infidelity and used a set of photographs as proof. The Duchess counter-petitioned the divorce. Margaret was condemned by the judge for having “disgusting sexual activities”... "Her attitude to the sanctity of marriage was what moderns would call 'enlightened' but which in plain language was wholly immoral." Many of the men the Duchess was alleged to have slept with were homosexual; she was unwilling to divulge this as sexual acts between men were illegal in the United Kingdom at the time. Her extravagant lifestyle and ill-considered investments left her largely penniless by the time she died.

Reductive wood block print, hand printed without a press. I used a sample of her signature to write “Margaret” © Sibylle Laubscher, 2022

This is a print run of 10 prints. The reductive print method means Margaret cannot be reprinted. 

The print will be sent to you lovingly wrapped in tissue paper and cardboard to make sure it arrives safely.

"Seit dem ich im Sommer den sehr inspirierenden und fundierten Kurs bei Sibylle besucht habe, nehme ich die Farben der Natur viel kräftiger und ihre Formen viel klarer wahr" Nicole