From: Butler Institute of American Art
The subject of the painting is Mrs. Arthur Knowles, formerly Mildred Clare Buchanan, third daughter of Captain James Buchanan of the 70th regiment. Mildred Buchanan married Arthur Lees Knowles of Alvaston Hall, Nantwich, Cheshire, who became High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1894.
The two children are John Buchanan Knowles and Richard Arthur Lees Knowles, who were seven and five years old, respectively, at the time of the sitting. Mrs. Knowles and Her Children was undoubtedly painted in London, in Sargent's Tite Street studio, his preferred location. Props, such as the flowered fabric used as a backdrop and the canape on which the subjects are seated are common to other paintings of the period and also appear in photographs of Sargent's studio. . . .
(Valerie Ann Leeds)
Portrait group of Mrs. Arthur Knowles (d. 1913) and her two sons, John Buchanan (b. 1895) and Richard Arthur Lees (b. 1897) seated together on a sofa. Mrs. Knowles wears a lilac-gray skirt and bodice with billowy ruffles and holds an open book on her lap. The boys wear pierrot costumes. A toy horse is on the ground in the foreground. A floral hanging is at left.
(SIRIS)
"Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of American Art," Youngstown, OH: Butler Art Institute, 1951.
Butler Institute of American Art, "Sixty years of collecting American art: an index to the permanent collection," Youngstown, OH: The Institute, 1979.
Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray, "John Singer Sargent: complete paintings; volume 3, The later portraits," New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003, no. 413.
Sweetkind, Irene S., ed., "Master Paintings from the Butler Institute of American Art," New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with The Butler Institute of American Art, 1994, pg. 148.
Sweetkind, Irene S., ed., "The Butler Institute of American Art Index of the Permanent Collection," Youngstown, OH: Butler Institute of American Art, 1997, pg. 150.
"Selections from the Permanent Collection: The Butler Institute of American Art," Youngstown, OH: Butler Institute of American Art, 1979, pg. 30.
Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray, "John Singer Sargent: complete paintings; volume 3, The later portraits," New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003, pg. 68.
Sweetkind, Irene S., ed., "Master Paintings from the Butler Institute of American Art," New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with The Butler Institute of American Art, 11994, pg. 48.
Sweetkind, Irene S., ed., "The Butler Institute of American Art Index of the Permanent Collection," Youngstown, OH: Butler Institute of American Art, 1997, pg. 150.
"Selections from the Permanent Collection: The Butler Institute of American Art," Youngstown, OH: Butler Institute of American Art, 1979, pg. 30.