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. Around 1945 or 1946 this drawing was sold by the Fine Art Society to Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973), whose family sold it at Christie’s on 5 June 2003, lot 49, for £3,800 to Maurice Dear. John Spink offered it for sale in November 2005 for £22,000.