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Created by George Stubbs (1724–1806), the artist; acquired by John Dawson Downes (1758–1829), Lowestoft, Suffolk, England [1][a]; purchased at auction by unknown collector at John Thurtell’s, in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, June 22–25, 1829 (lot 45, ‘Portrait of an Iceland Hawk, by Stubbs, in his best manner’), in "An Extensive Library of Books, Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Valuable Household Furniture, and Other Effects" [b]; ...; possibly acquired by Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, first Baron Tweedmouth (1820–1894), Brook House, London, England [2][c]; by descent to his son, Edward Marjoribanks, second Baron Tweedmouth (1849–1909), Brook House, London, England [3]; purchased at auction by Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, England, at Christie, Manson & Woods, in London, England, June 3, 1905 (lot 49, ‘A Gyr Falcon’), in "Highly Important Pictures of the Early English School and Works by Old Masters the Property of the Right Hon. Lord Tweedmouth," for Sir Charles Clow Tennant, first Baronet (1823–1906), Byfleet, Surrey, England [4][d][e]; by descent to his daughter, Katharine Elliot, Baroness of Harwood (née Tennant) (1903–1994), London, England [5]; purchased at auction by P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, England, at Sotheby & Co., in London, England, June 14, 1961 (lot 94, ‘A Greenland Falcon standing on a perch, a woody landscape in the background’), in "Important Old Master Paintings," for Paul Mellon (1907–1999) [f][g]; bequest, to the Yale Center for British Art, 2001.

Footnotes:
[1] John Dawson Downes was a British bookseller, printer, and falconer. Downes likely commissioned this painting from Stubbs.

[2] Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, first Baron Tweedmouth was a British politician and peer. He was also an art collector and possessed an extensive Wedgwood collection. Notably, he possessed several Stubbs paintings, including his collaborations with Wedgwood. Following Lord Tweedmouth’s death, Brook House and his collection were inherited by his son, the second Baron, Edward Majoribanks.

[3] Edward Majoribanks was a British politician and peer who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1894. The 1905 sale of Brook House’s contents was principally made up of artworks collected by the first Baron. As Edward also purchased art, it cannot be confirmed if this painting was inherited from his father. Furthermore, the painting is not featured in the National Gallery of Art’s "List of pictures at Brook House, Park Lane, London, W., property of the Tweedmouth family" (NG72/55).

[4] Sir Charles Clow Tennant was a Scottish businessman and industrialist. This painting was sold by Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, to Sir Charles Clow Tennant on June 3, 1905, the same day that they purchased the painting at auction at Christie, Manson & Woods, London.

[5] Katharine Elliot, the second wife of Scottish politician Walter Elliot (1888–1958), was a British politician and the third daughter of Sir Charles Clow Tennant and his second wife, Marguerite Agaranthe Miles (1868–1943). In the 1951 exhibition "George Stubbs 1724–1806" at the Walker Art Gallery (July 13–August 25, 1951, she is listed as the lender under "Mrs. Walter Elliot." For the Whitechapel Art Gallery exhibition held February–April 1957, the lenders are noted as "The Rt. Hon. Walter Elliott, M.P., and Mrs. Elliot, C.B.E."

Citations:
[a] Judy Egerton, George Stubbs, Painter: Catalogue Raisonné, (Yale University Press, 2007), 440–41, no. 222.

[b] John Thurtell, A Catalogue of an Extensive Library of Books, Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Valuable Household Furniture, and Other Effects, which will be Sold by Auction without reserve, by Order of the Executors of the Late John Dawson Downes, Esq. (Lowestoft: F. Doughton, 1829), 5. https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Catalogue_of_Books_Books_of_Prints_Val/VGVbAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22John+Dawson+Downes%22+%22auction%22&pg=RA1-PA1&printsec=frontcover.

[c] Egerton, George Stubbs, 440.

[d] Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods., Catalogue of the Highly Important Pictures of the Early English School and Works by Old Masters the Property of the Right Hon. Lord Tweedmouth, (Christie, Manson & Woods, 1905), 17. https://digitalprojects.wpi.art/auctions/detail?date=1905&place=40
city
London
country
United%20Kingdom&page=3&a=105773-highly-important-pictures-of-the-early-english-sch&media=7583778.

[e] Thomas Agnew & Sons stock books, 1904–1933, The National Gallery, London, reference no. NGA27/1/1/10. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/research/research-centre/agnew-s-stock-books/reference-nga27-1-1-10-1904-33.

[f] Sotheby & Co, Catalogue of Important Old Master Paintings (Sotheby & Co., 1961), 39.

[g] "The Greenland Falcon," Paul Mellon Centre Photographic Archive, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/objects/444367/the-greenland-falcon.