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. It is thereafter untraced until offered for sale at Phillips on 11 July 1999, lot 18, and again at Phillips on 9 November 2000, lot 11. It did not sell on either occasion but was was sold at Phillips in Exeter on 29 March 2001 for £460 to the current owner.