Gowing painted a portrait of his charwoman, Mrs Ellen Roberts in 1944 when he was living at 8 Paultons Square, Chelsea, London. When it was on show at the Leicester Galleries, London in March 1945 - where it was purchased by the artist Thomas Lowinsky (1892-1947), the elected buyer for the Contemporary Art Society that year - it also appeared in the Daily Sketch on 10 March, with a photograph of the 40-year old sitter, and she is said to have remarked that she was surprised to see her blue-and-white dress had been changed to green.