This drawing was unrecorded before the sale of 1984. It dates from the first half of the 1760s, probably circa 1763, following the artist's move from Ipswich to Bath and can be compared to a drawing repr. in J. Hayes, The Drawings of Thomas Gainsborough, 1970, vol.II, pl.33 no. 259. As Hayes points out, 'the free use of lead white is characteristic of Gainsborough's work of the early 1760's' (op.cit. vol.I, p.169). The drawing, with its careful if subdued colouring, has all the marks of a presentation drawing.
As William Jackson pointed out, 'he never sold, but always gave away his drawings, commonly to people who were perfectly ignorant of their value' (W. Jackson, The Four Ages, 1798, p.159, reprinted in Hayes, op.cit., p.93, where see also, pp.93-5, a discussion of the group of drawings to which this example belongs).