female figures with coat of arms", a work described as "competent if conventional" was not successful, and the commission was given to William Priestly MacIntosh. In 1897 Cowan was a finalist in the inaugural year of the Wynne Prize and again in 1925. After her return to Sydney in 1913, Cowan worked on commissions for various organisations such as the Government of New South Wales, the Chamber of Manufacturers and a small bust of Dr. Hinder (father of Frank Hinder) for the Western Suburbs Hospital. In Sydney, she was a regular exhibitor at the Society of Artists for which organisation she was a Council member from 1897–98, and an active member of the Society of Women Painters. She became interested in watercolour painting and in later life "turned increasingly towards painting and away from sculpture". Works Cowan completed a number of portrait busts of notable people, including the one which took pride of place in her one-woman exhibition at London's Grafton Galleries, that of the Bishop of London, Arthur Winnington-Ingram. The Bishop reportedly sat for it at Fulham Palace. Other well-known, notable subjects included Sir Gilbert Parker, Sir Edmund Barton (first Prime Minister of Australia), Sir Henry Parkes, and a full length statuette of Mrs. Brown-Potter. Her work is represented in the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Parliament House, Canberra. The bust of Eccleston du Faur (third President of the Board of trustees of the Art Gallery) was the Gallery's first commission to a Sydney artist. "After the completion of the Eccleston du Faur marble bust, there were questions in Parliament as to why the bust had been commissioned and why the commission had been given to a woman." Her portrait bust of Eliezer Levi Montefiore (President of the Art Gallery Trustees from 1889 to 1892) has been assessed as clearly showing her "skill as a portraitist". It was sculpted in 1898. In 1902 in London she was given a commission for a bust in marble of Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, who was the grandson of explorer Matthew Flinders. Awards 1899 – Society of Artists' Spring Exhibition (showing her bust of Sir Edmund Barton) In 1900, she was in London where she held a successful solo exhibition at the Grafton Gallery 1907 – London Exhibition of Work by Women Artists (First Prize) 1908 – Franco-British Exhibition (gold medal for Will-o-the-Wisp – the best piece of