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Created by Richard Dadd (1817–1886), the artist;...; acquired by Robert Rawlinson (1810–1898), London, England by 1883 [1][a]; by descent to his wife, Ruth Rawlinson (née Swallow) (1811–1902), London, England; sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, in London, England, May 18, 1903 (lot 121, ‘Sea Pieces, with shipping–a pair’) [b]; ...; acquired by Arthur Bellamy Clifton (1863–1932), London, England [2]; by descent to his wife, Madeline Clifton (née Knox) (1890–1975), London, England [c]; acquired by Thos. Agnew & Sons, London, England; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), 1961 [d]; by bequest to the Yale Center for British Art, 2001.

Notes:
[1] Robert Rawlinson was an English civil engineer, sanitarian, and art collector. In an 1893 interview with The Strand, this painting and its companion piece ‘The Diadonus’ are mentioned as having hung in Rawlinson’s home of The Boltons in South Kensington. In the article, they are referred to as "Storm" and "Calm," respectively.

Since Rawlinson was consulted by the Commissioners in Lunacy to inspect the sewage, drainage and water supply systems of the nation’s asylums throughout the 1860s, it is possible that Rawlinson encountered Dadd during one of his inspections of Bethlem Royal Hospital or Broadmoor Hospital. When Dadd was institutionalized in 1843 for murdering his father, he was sent to Bethlem in London. Following the completion of Broadmoor’s construction in Berkshire, many psychiatric hospital patients—including Dadd—were transferred there in 1864.

[2] Arthur Bellamy Clifton was an art dealer and the director of the Carfax Gallery, best known as the site where the Camden Town Group held its three exhibitions. Although formally educated as a solicitor, Clifton began working at the gallery in 1901 and assumed directorship in 1908.

Citations:
[a] Harry How, "Illustrated Interviews – Sir Robert Rawlinson, K.C.B.," The Strand (1893), 514.

[b] Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Collection of Modern Pictures and Drawings of Sir Robert Rawlinson, K.C.B. C.E. (London: Williams Clowes and Sons, Ltd., 1903), 20, https://digitalprojects.wpi.art/auctions/detail?date=1903&place=40
city
London
country
United%20Kingdom&page=4&a=127166-catalogue-of-the-collection-of-modern-pictures-and.

[c] Patricia Allderidge, The Late Richard Dadd 1817–1886 (London: The Tate Gallery, 1974), 121, https://archive.org/embed/latericharddadd10000alld.

[d] Ibid.