4 OF 17

General Officers of World War I

4 of 17 portraits of Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Bt

by John Singer Sargent
oil on canvas, 1922
118 in. x 208 in. (2997 mm x 5283 mm)
Given by Sir Abraham ('Abe') Bailey, 1st Bt, 1922
Primary Collection
NPG 1954

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Artistback to top

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), Portrait and landscape painter and muralist. Artist associated with 70 portraits, Sitter in 4 portraits.

Sittersback to top

Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby (1861-1936), Field Marshal. Sitter in 38 portraits.
William Riddell Birdwood, 1st Baron Birdwood (1865-1951), Field Marshal. Sitter in 18 portraits.
Louis Botha (1862-1919), General and South African statesman. Sitter in 4 portraits.
Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy (1862-1935), Field Marshal. Sitter in 14 portraits.
(Frederic) Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan (1865-1946), Army commander. Sitter in 21 portraits.
Sir John Steven Cowans (1862-1921), General. Sitter in 7 portraits.
Sir Arthur William Currie (1875-1933), Canadian General. Sitter in 1 portrait.
Sir Charles Macpherson Dobell (1869-1954), General. Sitter in 9 portraits.
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (1861-1928), Field Marshal. Sitter in 45 portraits.
Henry Sinclair Horne, Baron Horne (1861-1929), General. Sitter in 15 portraits.
Sir Henry Timson Lukin (1860-1925), Major-General. Sitter in 4 portraits.
Sir William Marshall (1865-1939), Lieutenant-General. Sitter in 5 portraits.
Sir Frederick Stanley Maude (1864-1917), Lieutenant-General. Sitter in 4 portraits.
George Francis Milne, 1st Baron Milne (1866-1948), Field Marshal. Sitter in 10 portraits.
Sir John Monash (1865-1931), Australian General. Sitter in 7 portraits.
Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer (1857-1932), Field Marshal. Sitter in 18 portraits.
Henry Seymour Rawlinson, 1st Baron Rawlinson of Trent (1864-1925), General and Commander-in-Chief of Army in India. Sitter in 19 portraits.
Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Bt (1860-1933), Field Marshal. Sitter in 16 portraits.
Sir Andrew Hamilton Russell (1868-1960), Major-General. Sitter in 1 portrait.
Jan Christian Smuts (1870-1950), Prime Minister of South Africa, Field Marshal and writer on evolution. Sitter in 33 portraits.
Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Bt (1864-1922), Field-Marshal and politician. Sitter in 17 portraits.
John Denton Pinkstone French, 1st Earl of Ypres (1852-1925), Field Marshal. Sitter in 13 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This is one of the portraits commissioned by the financier Sir Abraham Bailey to commemorate the role of the army, the navy and politicians in bringing the First World War to a close. Sargent, who initially declined the commission, began work on the military group portrait on his return from America in August 1920. He found the commission particularly difficult, writing to Sir James Guthrie (who was working on the politicians portrait) in September of that year: 'But I am still merely collecting material and have not yet evolved any scheme of the picture as a whole. I am handicapped by the idea that they never could have been altogether in any sort of interesting background and reduced to painting them all standing up in a vacuum'. Certainly, this painting does not have the characteristic brilliance of Sargent's other work and was described by a former director of the National Portrait Gallery as 'Still Life with Boots'.