- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View of Ludlow Castle, Shropshire
- Ludlow Castle
- Date
- 1777/07/21
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 302mm,
- image length 572mm
- Support
- four sheets
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne / delt. 1777 / No46”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.46 / A View of Ludlow Castle, Shropshire / drawn on the spot / by / Francis Towne July 21st 1777”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT109
- 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 granddaughter Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853–1923) inherited the drawing in 1915 and her sister Frances Ann Laura Solly (b.1858) sold it to Agnew’s (no.3986) on 6 September 1944 for £20. The same day it was bought for £31 10s. less commission of £1 11s. 6d. by Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973), whose family sold it at Christie’s on 20 November 1984, lot 67, for £7,500. It was subsequently owned by Albany Gallery, London, and by Martyn Gregory Fine Art, and was sold at Christie’s by “a corporation” on 9 November 1999, lot 74, for £19,000. It has since been offered sale by Guy Peppiatt.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection
- Guy Peppiatt, London
- Private Collection, 9 November 1999, GBP 19000
- Christie's, London, London, 9 November 1999, lot 74
- Martyn Gregory
- Albany Gallery
- Private Collection, GBP 7500
- Christie's, London, London, 20 November 1984, lot 67
- Sir William Worsley (1890 - 1973), 6 September 1944, GBP 31 10s
Less commission of £1 11s. 6d. - Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 6 September 1944, no.3986
- Frances Ann Laura Solly (1858 - alive in 1932)
- Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853 - 1923), 1915
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 39 or 40 as 'Ludlow Castle'
- Annual Exhibition of Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1935, no. 140
- Watercolours by Francis Towne, City Art Gallery, 1950, no. 39 or 40
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 71, 95, 140
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 107
- Sir William Worsley, Early English Water-Colours at Hovingham Hall: 1963, no. 36
Other entries in Tour of Wales, 1777
View of a Mountain, Perhaps near Aberddwlas
A View near Dolgelly with Part of Cader Idris
A View of the Salmon Leap from Pont Aberglaslyn
The West Front of Tintern Abbey
Chepstow Chepstow Museum and Art Gallery
The Ruins of the Great Room in Ludlow Castle, Shopshire, where Milton’s Comus was Performed
Footnotes
- 1 William Williams, Ludlow Castle, 1777 (Shropshire Museums Service).
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Comment
Another view of the castle also dated 1777, by William Williams, shows Towne’s likely position when making this sketch.1