31 JANUARY 1958, Page 7

I HAVE AT LAST been to Agnew's to see the

portrait of Princess Margaret by Signor Annigoni. None of the repioductions or deScriptions give the visitor even the faintest shadow of the full horror of it. The first thing that 'strikes one it the volumin- ous, meaningless, idiotically-draped piece of suburban theatre=durtain in which the Princess is Wrapped. Beneath • this is What appears to be a nightdress, faithfully reproduced from the 'Before' half of the Persil advertisements. Inside the night- dress is Princess Margaret. The flesh of her arm is not only unlike the flesh of a human being, it is unlike anything at all in the world, and the hand which appears, without warning, from beneath one side of the drapery in order to clutch the other, seetns to have nothing whatever to do with the rest of the portrait; let alone the rest of-the Princess.