Provenance

Bequeathed by Francis Towne 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 FT689 to FT714, much or all of which by 1963 was owned by Mr and Mrs Sutton of New Zealand. This was not among the seventeen drawings sold by the Suttons to the Fine Art Society in 1963. Rather, it was sold by Mrs R. Sutton at Sotheby’s on 19 March 1970, lot 75, for £500 to Crockett, whereafter it is untraced. Very probably this is the drawing that the Fine Art Society sold to Helen Spankie ca. 1971 for £1,250.