Cathleen Sabine Mann

Cathleen Sabine Mann RP ROI (31 December 1896 – 9 September 1959), styled the Marchioness of Queensberry from 1926 to 1946, was a British portrait painter and costume designer for film. She was a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Family and career Cathleen Mann was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 31 December 1896 to the Scottish portrait painter Harrington Mann, the second of his three daughters. Her mother was the portraitist and interior director Florence Sabine Pasley. Harrington Mann gave Cathleen painting lessons in his London studio, as did the portrait painter Ethel Walker. Walker continued to tutor Mann even while Cathleen was studying at Slade School of Fine Art in London. Walker remained an influence on Mann and the two often exhibited in the same group exhibitions. Mann's art career was put on hold owing to the First World War, when she worked with an ambulance unit.

By 1924 Mann had two portraits in the Royal Academy, and exhibited there regularly from 1930. Her work was displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Musée du Luxembourg, and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts.

During the 1930s Mann also engaged in costume design for British films. Her work included The Iron Duke (1935) starring George Arliss and Things to Come (1937) starring Raymond Massey. Mann donated some of her costume design drawings to the Victoria & Albert Museum, where they are on display.

Later life Mann married Francis Douglas, 11th Marquess of Queensberry on 18 March 1926, becoming his second wife. The marriage led some to refer to Mann as a "painting peeress", a term she disliked. She was known as the Marchioness of Queensberry until their divorce in 1946. They had two children, David Douglas, 12th Marquess of Queensberry and a daughter.

During the Second World War, Mann was an official war artist, painting portraits of officers such as Adrian Carton de Wiart and the Allied commanders. As well as being reproduced in magazines such as Time, these paintings were exhibited in London and then toured America. Follett was a racehorse owner, but died in 1953, aged 46, shortly before Francis Douglas also died. Following her death, this epitaph appeared in The Times:

Filmography in costume design 1937: Backstage 1936: Forbidden Music 1936: Things to Come (credited as The Marchioness of Queensberry) 1936: The Show Goes On 1934: The Iron Duke 1934: Evensong 1934: Chu Chin Chow 1933: The Wandering Jew