Provenance

Commissioned by William, 2nd Viscount Courtenay (1742–1788), and offered for sale by his son William, 3rd Viscount Courtenay, at Christie’s on 15 February 1817, lot 7, as Ditto [i.e. View] near Exwell looking towards Topsham to Farthing. It is thereafter untraced until sold at Sotheby’s on 31 October 1945 (see also 139) to the Fine Art Society (no.4162), from whom it was bought on 2 October 1946 for £157 10s. by Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973). On 21 December 1967 Worsley sold it to Agnew’s (no.7681) with FT432, FT736, FT881b (no.0903), and on the same day Agnew’s sold it to a collector. In 1994 it was on sale at Spink & Son, although it was purchased by them only on 22 July 1997. It was offered for sale at Christie’s on 21 November 2002, lot 28, and was in a UK private collection in 2005, when exhibited by John Spink (but not for sale).