the whole series of twelve paintings was still in highmore's studio in 1750 and when he moved to canterbury in 1762 he sold all twelve together as a set. they then re-appeared on 26 november 1920, when they were sold from the collection of hugh mccalmont's son major dermot mccalmont (1887-1968) of cheveley park, cambridgeshire to a man named peacock, who was acting on behalf of the art dealer and restorer ayerst horace buttery. the national gallery used money from the florence fund to buy the whole set from buttery and then divided the twelve works equally between itself, the fitzwilliam museum and the national gallery of victoria (ngv) in melbourne. each of the other two institutions contributed £500, the fitzwilliam from the marlay fund and the ngv from the felton bequest.