Live Auction 21605The Ann & Gordon Getty Collection: Volume 2 | Old Master, 19th and 20th Century Paintings, Day Sale
JOHN WHITE ALEXANDER (1856-1915)
Lot 123

JOHN WHITE ALEXANDER (1856-1915)

Portrait of Kathleen Cowan

Closed21 October 2022

Price Realised

USD 214,200

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JOHN WHITE ALEXANDER (1856-1915)
Portrait of Kathleen Cowan
signed and dated 'J.W. Alexander-/Aug 1900' (lower right)
oil on canvas
60 x 40 in. (152.4 x 101.6 cm.)
Painted in 1900

The artist.
John James Cowan, Edinburgh, Scotland, commissioned from the above, 1900.
Elizabeth Fraser Peters, daughter of the sitter.
Christopher Home Cowan, grandson of John James Cowan, circa 1936.
Phillips, Edinburgh, Scotland, 7 December 1984, lot 33.
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., and David Nisinson, New York, acquired from the above.
Peter Terian, New York, acquired from the above.
David Nisinson, New York.
Acquired by Ann and Gordon Getty from the above, 2003.

Specialist note

The present work was commissioned by the sitter's father, John James Cowan, a wealthy paper manufacturer and patron of artists such as James McNeill Whistler. His daughter Kathleen Cowan founded the music academy known today as the International Cello Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. The artist spent about two months in Scotland for the commission, executing the present work as well as portraits of at least six other Cowan family members, several of which were also proponents of music education.