- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Landscape Composition
- Date
- No date
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black and brown inks, brown washes
- Dimensions
-
- image height 120mm,
- image length 190mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “Francis Towne. delt 1783”
- in brown ink
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT789
- Description Sources
- Examination (image)
Provenance
Untraced until sold at Phillips in April 1955 for £12 as a lot including FT797 to Leonard Duke (1889–1971). In his catalogue he recorded that it was a group “which contained a signed & dated Towne of 1783 and 4 pupils’ drawings much inferior to this. I paid £12 for the lot, which contained also drawings by T.Barker, J.Eagles, & W Havell. I got at least £60 for the remaining contents.” Duke sold it on 19 May 1955 to Spink & Son. Spink sold it on 22 June 1959 for £30 and purchased it again on 5 April 1973. It was sold at Christie’s on 27 April 1976, lot 69, and to the present owner at Sotheby’s on 9 November 1995, lot 48, for £650. According to the Spink archive, this work was sold by them on 21 June 1976, in which case presumably they were the purchasers at the Christie’s auction two months earlier.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection, 9 November 1995, GBP 650
- Sotheby's, London, London, 9 November 1995, lot 48
- Christie's, London, London, 27 April 1976, lot 69
- Spink & Son, London, London, 5 May 1973
- Private Collection, 22 June 1959, GBP 30
- Spink & Son, London, London, 19 May 1955
- Leonard Duke (1889 - 1971), April 1955, GBP 12
- Phillips, London, April 1955
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Comment
This is an imaginary landscape in the style of Gaspar Dughet made for the purposes of copying by a pupil. Towne has drawn, partially crossed out, and redrawn the reclining figure in the bottom-right foreground.