Description
Creator
Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
Title(s)
  • From the West India Dock Blackwall looking towards the Royal Naval College, Greenwich
Date
1813/06/09
Medium
Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour
Dimensions
  • image height 108mm,
  • image width 178mm
Inscription
  • sheet, verso
  • “From the West India Dock Blackwall looking towrds Greenwich Hospital. Light from the right hand June 9 1813 Francis Towne”
Part of
  • 1812-1815 Sketchbook
Object Type
Watercolour

Catalogue Number
FT736
Description Sources
Agnew's records; Witt Library (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 within a sketchbook containing FT733 to FT751. Probably the book was among the “two small sketchbooks and five small drawings late in date” that Judith Merivale sold to Squire Gallery in 1945 for £50. On 29 August 1945 it was sold by the Fine Art Society (no.4066) for £26 5s. to Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973), who sold it to Agnew’s (no.8090) on 13 January 1968 with 137, 432, 881b (no.0903), where it was bought on 15 February 1968 by a collector who sold it back to Agnew’s (no.6578) on 11 February 1980. Agnew’s sold it on 2 February 1984.

Associated People & Organisations

Private Collection, 2 February 1984
Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 11 February 1980, no.6578
Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 13 January 1968, no.8090
Sir William Worsley (1890 - 1973), 29 August 1945, GBP 26.5s
The Fine Art Society, London, London, 29 August 1945, no.4066
[?] Squire Gallery, London, 1945, GBP 50
Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915
Inherited within a sketchbook containing FT733 to FT751.
Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915
Inherited within a sketchbook containing FT733 to FT751.
John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
Exhibition History
Watercolours by Francis Towne, City Art Gallery, 1950
95th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1968, no. 14
108th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1981, no. 2
Bibliography
Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 95, 141
Sir William Worsley, Early English Water-Colours at Hovingham Hall: 1963, p. 9

Comment

This is a view looking south over the Greenwich Reach to the Royal Naval College.

by Richard Stephens

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