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. On 6 June 1946 it was bought from the Fine Art Society (no.4463) for £42 (40 guineas in July 1946 according to Christies in 2003) by Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973), whose family sold it at Christie’s on 5 June 2003 for £6,500, whereafter it is untraced.