Provenance

Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), on whose death it passed to Towne’s residuary legatee John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) and his successors. Merivale’s granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 within a sketchbook containing FT733 to FT751. Probably the book was among the “two small sketchbooks and five small drawings late in date” that Judith Merivale sold to Squire Gallery in 1945 for £50. By 1947 Colnaghi (no.A14916) had acquired the drawing from the art dealer Hans Maximilian Calmann (1899–1982) of Perridge House, Pilton, Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and on 13 November 1947 they sold it to Gilbert Davis (1899–1983), who sold it in 1959 to the present owner, the Huntington Library, San Marino, California (59.55.1269).