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The lady in this portrait is a famous writer and gardener. The strong colours of her outfit and her commanding pose vividly convey her flamboyant personality. Assertively posed, with her elbow extended, her colourful character is brilliantly captured by Strang. She epitomizes the new woman of her time – stylish, confident – an independent thinker. Vita Sackville-West shocked Edwardian society because of her affairs with other women. Scottish-born Strang was a well-known etcher, but after 1900 began concentrating on oil painting and became very successful, particularly in the field of portraiture. Vita was one of several distinguished figures of the period who sat for him. She is remembered today for her most famous novel, 'The Edwardians', and for the garden she created at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent.