- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View of the Waterfall at Lidford in the County of Devon
- Date
- 1780
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image width 304mm,
- image length 205mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne / del. 1780”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “A View of the waterfall / at Lidford in the / County of Devon / Drawn on the spot / by Francis Towne”
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Collection
-
- (T08515)
- Catalogue Number
- FT163
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the object
Provenance
Untraced until bought by Paul Oppé (1878–1857; no.1601) at Appleby Bros in February 1924 for 12s. 6d. Oppé’s descendants sold it in 1996 with the rest of Oppé’s collection to the present owner, the Tate Gallery, London (T08515).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Appleby Bros, London
- Adolph Paul Oppé (1878 - 1957)
- Tate
- Exhibition History
- 76th Annual Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1949, no. 36
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 148
Other entries in West Country Sketches, 1772–80
Francis Towne
A View of Exeter, taken between Exwick and Cowley Bridge
A View of Exeter, taken between Exwick and Cowley Bridge
Francis Towne
A View of Berry Pomeroy Castle within the Gateway
A View of Berry Pomeroy Castle within the Gateway
Francis Towne
A View going up from the Lake in Peamore Park
A View going up from the Lake in Peamore Park
Francis Towne
A View from the Hill above the Lake at Peamore
A View from the Hill above the Lake at Peamore
Francis Towne
A View near Exwell, looking towards Topsham
A View near Exwell, looking towards Topsham
Francis Towne
A View of the Waterfall at Lidford in the County of Devon
A View of the Waterfall at Lidford in the County of Devon
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Comment
The village of Lidford (now Lydford), on the river Lyd, is at the western edge of Dartmoor, halfway on the road between Oakhampton and Tavistock.1 There were two waterfalls at Lidford, the one here being the larger. Both were popular local landmarks by the time of Towne’s visit in 1780, and several prints were made in the late 1700s—for example by G. Beck in 1785, which captures well the twisting path of the cascade.2 Towne’s view of the smaller Lidford falls is FT567.
In contrast to some of his depictions of waterfalls in North Wales in 1777 (for example FT071), Towne has framed this view with a large and decorative foreground tree.
This drawing is coloured similarly to another drawing dated 1780, FT164, and the upper areas of the right-hand tree in both works are exactly similar in their pen drawing and in the application of wash. It is interesting to see Towne using brush hatchings to create shaded areas in the foliage in this drawing, around a decade before he was using it regularly.