MOUNT STEPHEN, Lady (Charlotte Anne Kane)
Location:
Present Whereabouts Unknown.
The sitter, the daughter of Benjamin Kane, had married George Stephen, the future Baron Mount Stephen on 8 March 1853. She died on 10 April 1896 without issue. Their adopted daughter Alice Stephen married the first and last Baron Northcote and died 1 June 1934.
On Wednesday, June 9, 1897, Mary T. Hill records in her St. Paul diary: ‘Muller seems to be progressing with Lady Mount Stephens portrait.’ And there is a record (Hill Family Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul) which confirms that James J. Hill paid for this portrait of the late Lady Mount Stephen on 21 July 1897 which was ‘presented to party or parties in England’. It was clearly made from a photograph, and cost Hill $1600. This may be the picture reproduced in Heather Gilbert’s biography of Mount Stephen, plate opposite p. 160, which is ascribed to an unknown artist and stated to be in the possession of Mrs Aubrey Geddes, grand-daughter of Lord Mount Stephen’s sister Elsie Stephen Reford.
