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 (BP230). On 3 August 1945 Judith Merivale sold it to Agnew’s (no.4197) for £30 with 226, 612, 614, but as the Barton Place catalogue records its sale to Agnew’s in April 1935, this may not have been her first attempt to sell the drawing. On 28 November 1945 it was bought from Agnew’s for £15 15s. by Joseph Hawksley Elliott of Sheffield (d. ca. 1978), and his daughter sold it at Christie’s on 14 March 1978, lot 87, for £360. It was sold at Sotheby’s Olympia, on 11 May 2005, lot 46, for £2,640 including fees to John Spink, who offered it for sale later that year for £19,000.