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 was on sale at the Fine Art Society in 1946 and was sold by them on 23 January 1946 to Agnew’s (no.4402), where on 28 February 1946 it was bought for £36 15s. by Hon. Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman (1903–2000), whereafter it is untraced (Runciman’s niece and executor, Ann Shukman, states that he probably gave it away prior to 1964, the date of the earliest written valuation of his picture collection).