With the trial over, Blood set about reshaping her life. She had always been fond of writing and turned easily to journalism, writing columns on art and travel, fashion, music and the theatre, sport and fishing – one of her favourite pastimes. Her other talents included painting, riding,
cycling, swimming, a fine singing voice, an excellent command of French and Italian (which she had spoken long before being introduced to English), a bit of German, Spanish and Arabic, and was recognised as an expert fencer. She contributed regularly to the columns of the
Saturday Review and the
Pall Mall Gazette and later edited the
Ladies Field. During her career she used the pseudonyms "
Véra Tsaritsyn", "
G. E. Brunefille" and "
Q.E.D." Although ostracised by the very society of which she had longed to be part – they had closed ranks when it became apparent that a member of their set was being publicly challenged – her vivaciousness, liberal outlook, creativity and acerbic wit made her a welcome addition to literary and artistic circles. She was a confidante of
Whistler who described her from his first meeting as
"the very handsome and exceedingly amiable lady", and
George Bernard Shaw saw her as a goddess. Her relationship with
Frank Harris and
Oscar Wilde, whom she called "the great white slug", was less cordial. She posed for Whistler for his painting
Harmony in White and Ivory: Portrait of Lady Colin Campbell, which was lost or deliberately destroyed, and commissioned a portrait from
Frank Duveneck, whose future wife, the artist
Elizabeth Otis Lyman Boott (1846–1888), was also a close friend. Gertrude knew Duveneck well enough to secretly send some of his Venetian etchings to the New Society's first exhibition in 1881. She was regarded as eccentric and
Augustus Hare records that she "wore a live snake around her throat in hot weather because it keeps one's neck so cool". In her column of 20 October 1897 in
The World, she wrote a piece entitled
Modern Gladiators, under the name "Véra Tsaritsyn", about attending the screening of a
silent film at
the Aquarium in London. The film covered the
World Heavyweight Title clash at
Carson City between
James Corbett and
Bob Fitzsimmons on 17 March 1897. Her description eulogises the physical clash and underlines her enjoyment of the sensual. Shaw noted in his diary on 17 October 1889, that he had written to
Edmund Yates asking that he give the position of
art critic at
The World to Lady Colin Campbell. Shaw's easily readable art and music reviews appeared regularly in
The World and
The Star, but as his time was taken up in other ways, he would gladly resign from what he regarded as a bore. Much later he would write to
Frank Harris, "From Lady Colin Campbell onward, I have been familiar with celebrated beauties and with what is by no means the same thing, really beautiful women." Shaw interviewed her in 1893 and wrote: "Imagine a lady with a lightning wit, a merciless sense of humour, a skill in journalism surpassing that of any interviewer, a humiliatingly obvious power of reckoning you up at a glance, and probably not thinking much of you, a superb bearing that brings out all the abjectness in your nature, and a beauty the mere fame of which makes you fall into an attitude of amateurishly gallant homage that fulfils the measure of your sneaking confusion. The custom is for the interviewer to describe the subject of an interview as his "victim". It is not possible to express how completely the tables were turned on this occasion." – George Bernard Shaw Lady Colin Campbell died at
Carlyle Mansions in London on 1 November 1911, of chronic
rheumatism. ==Selected works==