Grimm was born in Switzerland where he trained as an oil painter. He moved to Paris in 1765 and finally settled in England in 1768, where he exhibited at the Royal Academy's first exhibition and was successful as a topographical watercolourist.
Cornelius Heathcote Rhodes, for whom this drawing was probably executed, was a patron and friend of Grimm, who lived at Barlborough Hall near Chesterfield. Barlborough was the subject of a number of his drawings.
In the 19th Century Barlborough was for many years the seat of the Locker-Lampson family. Frederick Locker (1821-1895), who owned the present drawing was the poet and author of London Lyrics. He took the additional name of Lampson in 1885 on the death of his second wife's father, Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, and went to live at Rowfant, Sussex, where he built up and catalogued the Rowfant library.