The cropped, normal version.

From BritainExplorere.com

The Eyes of Blenheim Palace

Visitors to Blenheim Palace are often surprised to notice that the ceiling roof of the entrance portico is decorated with six remarkable eyes. Three of these are blue and three are brown and all of them look vaguely masonic in their design. They were painted in 1928 by artist Colin Gill based on strict instructions from Gladys, the remarkably beautiful and eccentric 2nd wife of the Ninth Duke of Marlborough. Gladys was renowned for her outstanding good looks and everyone who met het admitted that they were easily captivated by her exceptional eyes. The blue eyes of the portico are believed to be hers and there is even a record that she climbed to the top of the scaffolding with a blue scarf that matched their colour so that the painter would get them exactly right. The brown eyes are said to be those of the Duke but could equally have been those of the Duke’s first wife Consuela who was, for a time, close friends with Gladys.

Gladys was a remarkable woman who had known some of the greatest artists and writers of the time including Monet, Rodin and Proust. Men fell in love with her with regularity and she was pursued by Bernard Berenson, Hermann von Keyserling, the Duke of Connaught and d’Annunzio as well as Crown Prince of Prussia. She eventually married the Ninth Duke of Marlborough but was eventually evicted from the palace when the couple’s marriage broke down and her eccentric behaviour became too dangerous to ignore. It is said that she would carry a loaded pistol and when asked why she would answer that perhaps she would shoot the Duke. Gladys spent the last years of her life in a psychiatric hospital. To this day nobody is truly sure why she had the eyes painted or what they were meant to represent – or for that matter why there are three of each colour. Masonic connections, clairvoyance and spiritualism have all been suggested but there is no proof for any of these theories. Perhaps Gladys had them painted just because she could.
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