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 (1745–1844) 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 as part of a sketchbook containing FT752 to FT764, which they sold in 1927 to Walker’s Galleries for £60. It is thereafter untraced until offered for sale at Sotheby’s on 16 March 1978, lot 62, when it did not sell. It was sold at Sotheby’s on 30 November 1978, lot 64, again at Sotheby’s on 14 March 1985, lot 35, for £1,150, and at Christie’s on 8 July 1986, lot 113, for £1,600, whereafter it is untraced.