B.
Bettina
Behind the scenes
The lady on the left is Lady Bettina Drummond-Hay. She enjoys the style 'Lady' because her father is Robert Alexander Lindsay, 29th Earl of Crawford and 12th Earl of Balcarres.
Historic Hudson Society Gala, 17 December 2007
Back in the 1970s, when she was Lady Bettina Lindsay, she was romantically linked with the Prince of Wales - or so the media wanted to believe.
In fact she had a lucky escape, left Charles to his own devices and married businessman Peter Drummond-Hay. She lives in Singapore and Connecticut, where she breeds horses and attends very smart parties in New York. The one above, a fundraiser for the Historic Hudson Society was attended by 235 people and raised $500,000.
Back in 1970, when, as Lady Bettina, her photograph appeared in the newspaper, Doris Lusk was struck by her strong profile and produced this powerful portrait.
Doris Lusk Bettina. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, purchased 1971
Related
Collection
Doris Lusk Bettina
This is a portrait drawn from a newspaper photograph. The young woman was Prince Charles’s girlfriend at the time. Doris Lusk enjoyed the challenge of portraiture and was drawn to Bettina’s strong aristocratic profile. Working from the original black and white photograph, Lusk has used an expressionistic style, with a variety of textures. She has kept the tightly cropped composition, but gives a fuller picture of the young woman through the addition of rich colour and the fluid use of line and tone. Lusk was born in Dunedin where she studied at the King Edward Technical College. She and her husband settled in Christchurch in 1943. Lusk taught at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts from 1968 to 1981. A potter as well as a painter, she tutored pottery from 1947 and was a foundation member of the Canterbury Potters Association in 1965. In 1974 Lusk travelled to Europe, Canada and the United States after receiving a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Travel Award.