- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
- Date
- 1786 - 1805/11/25
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 213mm,
- image length 337mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “F.Towne / delt 1786”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “A View of Keswick Lake / Looking Towards Lodore Fall / Drawn on the spot 1786 & / finished Nov 25 1805 by / Francis Towne”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT506
- Description Sources
- Christie’s records (image)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), on whose death it passed to Towne’s residuary legatee John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) and his successors. Merivale’s granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 (BP153). On 12 April 1946 Judith Merivale’s executors sold it to Agnew’s (no.4546), where it was bought on 15 July 1946 for £45 by Charles Richard Nairne Routh (1896–1976), who on 10 September 1946 sold it back to Agnew’s (no.4761) for £45. On 5 August 1949 Agnew’s (no.6002) sold it for £120 less commission of £6 to Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973), whose family sold it at Christie’s on 20 November 1984, lot 74, for £13,000 to Davis & Langdale of New York. It was sold again at Christie’s on 21 March 1989, lot 116, for £20,000, whereafter it is untraced.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
- Private Collection, 21 March 1989, GBP 20000
- Christie's, London, London, 21 March 1989, lot 116
- Davis and Langdale Company Inc., New York, 20 November 1984, GBP 13000
- Christie's, London, London, 20 November 1884, lot 74
- Sir William Worsley (1890 - 1973), 5 August 1949, GBP 120
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 10 September 1946, GBP 45, no.4761
- Charles Richard Nairne Routh (1896 - 1976), 15 July 1946, GBP 45
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 12 April 1946, no.4546
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP153
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP153
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Watercolours by Francis Towne, City Art Gallery, 1950, no. 10
- English Watercolours from Four Yorkshire Houses 1660-1860, Scarborough Art Gallery, 1950, no. 15
- British Landscape Watercolours, Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 1987, no. 3
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 142, 193
- Sir William Worsley, Early English Water-Colours at Hovingham Hall: 1963, p. 12, no. 59
Other entries in Lake District, 1786
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
Elter Force, near Ambleside
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
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Comment
This is a view looking south down Derwent Water, showing Castle Rock prominently on the right.
Towne’s inscription confirms that this picture was worked on in 1805. Among the additions then were the travelling figures in the left mid-ground and the boatmen. Towne also probably sharpened the definition of the foreground rocks at this late stage and added the shepherd and flock of sheep.