This is one of the early acquisitions by the Contemporary Art Society soon after its foundation. It was purchased from the artist at the New English Art Club exhibition in the winter of 1903 by Robert Ross (1869-1918), art critic for the Morning Post (1908-12) and Director of Carfax Gallery (1901-09) - first commercial London art gallery to specialise in 20th century British artists such as William Nicholson, Charles Shannon, Walter Sickert, Philip Wilson Steer and William Rothenstein as well as a CAS Executive Committee member from its inception until just before he died. Henry Tonks, originally a medical surgeon, taught at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1892, later becoming Professor in 1918 and was the most renowned and formidable teacher of his generation.