Provenance

Bequeathed by the artist to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), then to Towne’s residuary legatee John Herman Merivale and his successors. It descended to Merivale’s granddaughter Frances Ann Laura Solly (b.1858). According to a note on the back of the drawing written by Paul Oppé on 9 August 1949, “This drawing was among those left by Towne to the Merivale Family. I saw it first with Mrs Solly at Exeter, one of the Merivale family. I took it to be Pars or an older drawing, perhaps Dutch.” At some point—and perhaps in 1949, which would explain why Oppé was called on to give an opinion then—it entered the collection of Sir Bruce Ingram, whose collector’s mark (Lugt 1405a) is on the back of the mount. It was offered for sale at Christie’s on 11 July 1989 and at Taylor’s of Honiton on 11 December 1998. It was sold at Lawrence’s of Crewkerne on 15 April 2011, lot 1785, as “circle of William Pars” to Abbott & Holder of Museum Street, London.