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 (no.4033), where on 4 March 1946 it was bought for £26 5s. by Sir John Heathcoat Amory, Bt (1894–1972), who sold it on 27 February 1956 to Agnew’s (no.8262), who sold it on 9 February 1957 to a collector. It is thereafter untraced apart from its sale at Christie’s on (according to the Art Sales Index) 25 October 1993, lot 642, for £1,100.