Oil on canvas, 50.8cm by 76.2cm.
Signed l.l.: A.W. Fowles and inscribed and dated 1863 on the reverse.
Osprey, a two-masted sailing boat with a mizzen mast stepped abaft the rudder post, belonged to William Alleyne, Lord Burghley, who in 1867 became 3rd Marquess of Exeter (1825-1895).
He raced his sailing yachts off the Isle of Wight every year and was Vice Commodore of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club there.
The artist, who was born in Ryde, trained initially as a plumber.
However, he had a natural talent for drawing and from 1851, and entirely self taught, he became an accomplished and sought after marine artist.
