Literature: Christie's London, Catalogue of Pictures and Drawings of the Late John Singer Sargent, R.A., London, 1925, July 24 and 27 , lot 155 as Portrait of General Sir J. S. Cowans. David McKibbin, Sargent's Boston. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1956, p. 90. Sir John Cowans is a study for the monumental painting commemorating important figures of the Great War. Sargent had been invited to paint the subject for the National Portrait Gallery, London. Out of a sense of obligation he consented to take on the daunting task of immortalizing The Generals of the Great War. In September of 1920 he wrote to fellow war artist Sir James Guthrie: "I have been back a couple of months and thanks to Mr. Milner (director of the National Portrait Gallery) have put salt on the tails of a certain number of generals and I find each of them individually very interesting to do and the tremendous variety of types seems to give a promise of some sort of interest." [John Sargent, by Evan Charteris, New York, Scribner's, 1927, p. 218]. Sargent's optimism was short- lived. The group of generals, completed in 1922, did not equal the sum of the individual portrait sketches. The portrait of Sir John Cowans is a very fine example of Sargent's consummate skill as a portrait artist. With the deftness of his brushstroke and the freshness of his palate, Sargent creates not only the portrait of an individual but also an image of the vitality, the pride, and the courage that led the allies to victory. This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné on John Singer Sargent by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray in collaboration with Warren Adelson and Elizabeth Oustinoff. © 1998 Adelson Galleries, Inc