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Helen Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon


Helen Venetia Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon (née Duncombe) (1866 – 16 May 1954) was a British noblewoman, socialite and diarist.

Helen was the daughter of William Duncombe, 1st Earl of Feversham, of Ryedale and Mabel Violet Graham, born at their estate of Duncombe Park in Helmsley, North Yorkshire, England. She and her sister, Hermione, Duchess of Leinster, were renowned as leading beauties in their circle.

Helen married Sir Edgar Vincent, then a governor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank in Constantinople on 24 September 1890. In 1899 he was elected a Member of Parliament for Exeter. Lady Helen, in that period, was "the most celebrated hostess of her age and was 'by reason of her outstanding beauty, intelligence and charm, one of the most resplendent figures'".

Helen was associated with "the Souls", a salon of noted intellectuals of the day which included Arthur Balfour, George Curzon, Henry James and Edith Wharton. She is believed to have been the model for the characters of Lady Thisbe Crowborough in Max Beerbohm's story Hilary Maltby and Stephen Braxton in Seven Men (1919) and for Lady Irene Silvester in Maurice Baring's story "A Luncheon Party" (1925).

In 1904 during an extended visit to Venice, Lady Helen's portrait was painted by John Singer Sargent. That work is now part of the permanent collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.


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