This portrait was purchased by E. C. 'Peter' Gregory (1888-1959) who was the annual elected buyer for the Contemporary Art Society, in January 1954. Gregory said he paid the young artist £25 on the spot 'as he was hard up and needed the cash'. Victor Willing had been recommended by Sir William Coldstream (1908-1987), Professor and Director at the Slade School of Fine Art Art, where he and the sitter, later his future second wife, were both pupils.