English: 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'.