Idina Sackville, portrait of a woman hooked on seduction Portrait of Idina Sackville, then 22, bought by an American at Sotheby's Married five times, she was known as 'The Bolter' - describing how she 'bolted from man to man' Nickname is also title of biography written about her by Frances Osborne, the Chancellor's wife and Idina's great-granddaughter Idina reportedly taught one man how to make pair of stockings slide to the floor by touching four strategic points on a woman's skirt By Catherine Ostler Reclining in her green onyx bathtub, cigarette holder in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other, Idina Sackville would receive visitors to her house in Kenya. When the bubbles in both the champagne and the bath had gone flat, she would get out in all her naked glory and dress herself in a leisurely way, keeping up the conversation all the while. Known for having more lovers than anyone could count, Idina hosted wife-swapping parties in Africa at which she would allocate bedroom keys over a throw of the dice or the turn of a card. Known for having more lovers than anyone could count, Idina Sackville hosted wife-swapping parties in Africa at which she would allocate bedroom keys over a throw of the dice or the turn of a card. Above, Sir William Orpen's portrait of her which recently sold for just over £1m She couldn't be left alone in a room with a man without igniting gossip that they were having an affair. When Sir William Orpen, the World War I artist and incorrigible womaniser, painted her portrait in 1915, rumours flared about a liaison. Nearly a century on, the electricity between sitter and artist is palpable. Her wide, blue eyes are limpid and vulnerable and a low-cut black dress by Edward Molyneux, the most fashionable couturier of the day, is draped around her slender frame. There is a hint of mischief around her pink-red lips. The portrait, painted when Idina was 22 during the first of her five marriages, was sold to an American buyer this week at Sotheby's in London for just under £1 million. Grant Ford, Sotheby's head of British and Irish art, says his clients love it. "Beautiful women always sell - but this has such a good narrative," he says. I can imagine it hanging in London or New York and serving as an ice-breaker as people ask who she was. Vogue vixen: Cecil Beaton's portrait of Lady Idina for the magazine. She couldn't be left alone in a room with a man without igniting gossip that they were having an affair Many will know Idina as "The Bolter," her nickname during her lifetime, and the title of the best-selling biography written about her by Frances Osborne, the Chancellor's wife and Idina's great-granddaughter. The Bolter tells the story of a woman who "bolted" from man to man, and whose reputation was so scarlet her existence was kept a secret from Mrs Osborne until she was a teenager. The book is now being turned into a TV series by New Regency, the U.S. studio behind the Julia Roberts and Richard Gere film Pretty Woman. Today, Frances Osborne says this portrait more than does justice to the spirit of her great-grandmother. It captures so well her sexiness, her animal magnetism. She was one of those women with star quality. She could set a room alight with her charisma. And she was naughty. The Pekinese at her feet was called Satan. No wonder Orpen wanted to paint her and society photographer Cecil Beaton shot her for Vogue. Osborne isn't the first to have been inspired by Idina's mischief. Nancy Mitford named one of her characters "The Bolter" because of her tendency to marry, change her mind and "bolt" after a few months. Idina was also the inspiration for Michael Arlen's novel The Green Hat, about a tragic femme fatale who charms half of London and much of Paris. It was turned into a film, A Woman Of Affairs, starring Greta Garbo. Idina is also said to have been one of the bright young things with loose morals who inspired author Evelyn Waugh's novel Vile Bodies. Idina is seen here on the cover of Tatler in 1923 with the man who became her third husband - Josslyn Hay, eventually 22nd Earl of Erroll, a man as louche as her and eight years her junior Born into the aristocracy and into money - her father was the 8th Earl De La Warr and her mother a railway heiress - Idina's life was touched by scandal when she was just four. Her father, known as "Naughty Gilbert" for his affairs, left her mother for a can-can dancer and they later divorced. When Idina came out as a debutante, she was carefully watched by the debs" mothers in case she - with her risque background - turned out to be trouble. And she did. She fell in love with her first husband, Frances Osborne's great-grandfather, Euan Wallace, a captain in the Life Guards, when she was still a teenager. He was, says Frances, "incredibly good-looking and about the wealthiest single man in England." They married in 1913 when Idina was 20. Like many men of his generation, he was wounded in the war and sent home with shrapnel in his leg in November 1914. Once he had recovered, he was besieged by attractive women unable to resist throwing themselves at a handsome war hero who happened to be unbelievably rich. Seeking revenge for his infidelity - or perhaps to provoke jealousy - Idina encouraged her own admirers, among them the Canadian magnate Sir James Hamet Dunn. It was Dunn who asked William Orpen to paint Idina, and she sat for him in March 1915, just as her husband was returning to the Front. Many will know Idina as 'The Bolter', her nickname during her lifetime, and the title of the best-selling biography written about her by Frances Osborne (left, at a book signing), the Chancellor's (right) wife and Idina's great-granddaughter At the time, it was highly unconventional, outrageous even, for a married man to commission a portrait of someone else's wife to hang in his own home. Dunn paid Orpen the then unheard sum of £750. Frances Osborne believes Idina was trying win back her husband's affections by showing off the desire she inspired in other men. For all her subsequent marriages, Euan was the love of her life. "She was always in love with him, and died with his picture by her bed," says Osborne. But nothing could be done to save the marriage and it fell apart. Idina, never one to play by the rules of her class, divorced Euan, left their two sons then aged three and four, and became a wild flapper, soaked in cocktails and wreathed in cigarette smoke. She reportedly taught one man how to make a pair of stockings slide to the floor by touching four strategic points on a woman's skirt. In March 1919, she married briefly for a second time to an Army captain, and sailed with him to Africa. He couldn't keep up with her sexual energy, so she moved on to Josslyn Hay, eventually 22nd Earl of Erroll, a man as louche as her and eight years her junior whom she called "The Child." They were pictured during their engagement on the cover of Tatler, parading around Venice with Joss in pyjamas and her in a floaty dress, looking as though they had just fallen out of bed. Idina had decided to be as bad as she could. She had her hair cropped, painted her nails green, lounged in bed all day and stayed up all night. Josslyn's father exploded with rage at his son's marriage to this boyish, twice-divorced, older woman. Josslyn, though, was no angel: he had been expelled from Eton at 15 for sleeping with a housemaid twice his age. Together they moved to a farmhouse in Kenya where they installed a mirror above their bed and became founder members of the Happy Valley set, hosting cocaine-fuelled, wife-swapping parties. Osborne says they had agreed to have an open marriage. He certainly took her at her word, being unfaithful to her with a woman he met on the boat out to Mombasa. Idina would tell the story, laughing, to prove she didn't mind. A society girl to her core, she found the farming a struggle. When she was sent 100 sheep from Scotland, she became convinced they had heat stroke when they started dying and ordered 100 hats to protect them. It didn't work; the killer was an unseen parasite. Idina was famous for her style and she astonished her neighbours by always looking immaculate even in the African heat. She kept cool with the help of iced gin and tonic carried around in a Thermos flask, and she liked to be naked apart from a "red and gold kikoi" or sarong. Sometimes the wild games at their parties went awry. Once, a guest became stuck in a wicker basket during a game of hide-and-seek and, trying to force his way out with a knife, stabbed the bottom of the girl sitting on it. Even their louche neighbours were shocked at such goings on. Rumours went round that Somali farm hands were leaving her employ out of fear of being asked to sleep with her. Such excesses did not make for a stable marriage and she and Josslyn divorced in 1930. Josslyn's subsequent murder in 1941 was later the subject of the book and film White Mischief. Idina returned to London. Now thrice-divorced, she was a social pariah. But even if she was not accepted in polite circles, male admirers still flocked to her. She married a fourth man, a jealous type, and then a fifth. Other lovers included Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists; a young man she picked up in Lisbon; a cattle rancher named "Boy" and someone called "Precious." She didn't see either of her sons for 15 years after her divorce from her first husband and relations were not much better with her daughter Diana from her marriage to Josslyn. At the age of eight, Idina sent Diana away from Kenya to live with her cousin in England and be raised by a governess and later an aunt. She was briefly reunited and reconciled with her sons in the Thirties, only to lose them both in the war. Idina never really recovered. She took up with a tattooed, bisexual former sailor who stuck with her through a long battle with cancer, until she died in 1955. Orpen's beautiful portrait captures her at her most glamorous, most desirable - and, perhaps, at her happiest. Her marriage to Euan had not yet fallen apart and in the picture she is pregnant with her second child, Gee. The tragedy, says Frances Osborne, is that she ever left her first husband. Had she not, Idina may have enjoyed a life of lasting fulfilment. But then perhaps she could never have resisted being a Bolter - and succumbing to the natural waywardness that made her one of the most seductive women of her age. The Bolter by Frances Osborne is published by Virago, priced £8.99.