JOHN SINGER SARGENT | GENERAL SIR JOHN COWANS

Estate of the artist (and sold: Christie's, London, July 24, 1925, lot 155)

Viscount Cowdray, London

Richard L. Thune and Adelson Galleries, New York, 1998

Adelson Galleries, New York

Private Collection, Massachusetts (acquired from the above)

Pierce Galleries, Inc., Nantucket, Massachusetts (acquired from the above)

Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2006

Major Desmond Chapman-Huston & Major Owen Rutter, General Sir John Cowans, G. C. B., G. C. M. G., the Quartermaster General of the Great War, vol. I, London, 1924, illustrated as a frontispiece

William Howe Downes, John S. Sargent: His Life and Work, London, 1926, p. 329

Evan Charteris, John Sargent, London, 1927, p. 277

Charles Merrill Mount, John Singer Sargent: A Biography, New York, 1955, no. 226, p. 442

David McKibbin, Sargent's Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, 1956, p. 90

Richard Ormond & Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Later Portraits, vol. III, New Haven, Connecticut, 2003, no. 593, pp. 260, 307, illustrated p. 260

The present work is a head-and-shoulders study for the figure of Sir John Cowans in General Officers of World War I (1920-22, National Portrait Gallery, London), which was one of three works commissioned from John Singer Sargent by the South African millionaire Sir Abe Bailey to commemorate the generals, admirals, and statesmen of the First World War for presentation at the National Portrait Gallery in London. 

Cowans served as Quartermaster-General to the Forces in the British Army from 1912-19. He is featured at the center of the grouping in General Officers of World War I.