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. In 1946 it was on sale at the Fine Art Society, where on 21 January 1946 it was bought for £31 10s. by Joseph Hawksley Elliot (d. ca. 1978), who sold it at Christie’s on 9 November 1976, lot 71, for £620 to Agnew on behalf of a client. It was sold at Sotheby’s on 22 November 2007, lot 132, for £6,000 including fees.