There is some doubt about the identity of this sitter but in all likelihood it is Mrs Donald Ross. Née Esme Catherine Crichton Stewart (born 1909), firs married Viscount Tiverton in 1930. After her divorce in 1936 she married Ronald Ross.

References to classical and contemporary Surrealism pervade The Goddessesseries of society beauties transformed into Green and Roman Goddesses, which Yevonde began in 1935. Whilst claiming in her autobiography, In Camera, that her inspiration for the series derived solely from the 18th century painters’ idea of depicting beauties as Greek Goddess, it would appear that the its immediate impetus came from the ‘Olympian Ball’ held at Claridges hotel in London in March 1935.

Madame Yevonde Be Original or Die, The British Council 1998