Valerie, Lady Meux

Valerie Susan, Lady Meux, (1847 – 1910) was a Victorian socialite and the wife of Sir Henry Meux, 3rd Baronet (pronounced "Mews") (1856 - 1900), a London brewer.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler painted three portraits of Lady Meux in 1881. The portraits were the first full-scale commissions to be given to Whistler following the notorious Ruskin trial, which had left him financially bankrupt. Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux currently belongs to the Frick Collection in New York City, Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux belongs to the Honolulu Museum of Art while the third portrait, Portrait of Lady Meux in Furs, is believed to have been destroyed by Whistler after he became outraged over a comment made to him by Lady Meux during a sitting.

Never accepted by her husband's family or by polite society, she was a flamboyant and controversial figure, who was given to driving herself around London in a high phaeton, drawn by a pair of zebras. Their house at Theobalds in Hertfordshire was lavishly improved and enlarged; additions included a swimming pool and an indoor roller skating rink. In 1887, at Lady Meux's request, the dismantled Temple Bar was purchased from the City of London Corporation, transported to Hertfordshire and carefully rebuilt as a new gateway to the estate. She often entertained in the upper chamber of the gateway. Guests included the Prince of Wales and Winston Churchill. Sir Henry died in 1900, without issue, ten years before she would die.

Lady Meux also owned a string of race horses, racing them under the assumed name of Mr. Theobolds. As an owner she was not greatly successful, but she won the Sussex Stakes with Ardeshir in 1897. She was also a noted collector of ancient Egyptian artifacts; the legendary Egyptologist Wallis Budge, published a catalogue of more than 1,700 of her items including 800 scarabs and amulets. He dedicated his publication, The Book of Paradise, to her. She tried to leave the collection to the British Museum, but the trustees declined the bequest and it was sold. She also acquired five illustrated Ethiopic manuscripts, and Budge published a colored facsimile of them. On finding that they were revered by the Ethiopians, she left them in her will to Emperor Menelik. The courts set aside this provision, ostensibly, to keep them in Britain - and they were sold to William Randolph Hearst, of California.

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