Dali's Equestrian Fantasy later married Lord Beaverbrook

This English horsewoman, Marcia Anastasia Christoforides, was born in 1909 and married the Canadian financier Sir James Dunn in 1942. His third wife, she was 36 years younger than her first husband.

Salvador Dali was a friend, and in 1954 the couple commissioned this portrait of Lady Dunn seated on a handsome palomino horse. An obedient falcon is perched on her gauntlet.

Lady Dunn, a philanthropist, owned racehorses and collected art. Widowed in 1956, she married Lord Beaverbrook in 1963, only to be widowed again a year later. This portrait is on display at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler until September 11. It's part of a special exhibition: Masterworks from the Beaverbrook Gallery.