William Leech (1837-1887);

his executor's sale, London, Christi🍌e'ౠs, 21 May 1887, lot 86, bt. Mclean;

with Agnew's, Manchester;

Major J.B. Upton (1900-1976), Hornsea, Yorkshire

It has been suggested that Turner painted this view of the waterfalls of Tivoli in arou👍nd 1796, the year that he first exhibited at the Royal Academy.

This large – for the period – sheet has not appeared at auction since William Leech’s executor’s sale of 1887. Leech, who was Beatrix Potter's uncle, came from a family of cotton mill owners. He and his wife lived in Kensington Gardens, London, where they kept a fine collection of pictures. The 188🌳7 sale at Christie’s, for example, contained over twenty watercolours by Turner and many other leading artists of the day.