- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Penmaenmawr
- The Road going over Penmaen Mawr to Conway
- Date
- 1777
- Medium
- Pen and ink, watercolour
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Penmaenmawr drawn on the spot”, with an extensive inscription erased and replaced with the date “1777” (the erasure including the word “finished”)
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- numbered “31” (Paul Oppé records) or “34” (Barton Place catalogue)
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT095
- Description Sources
- Paul Oppé records; Agnew’s records
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 (BP117). On 14 January 1935 Judith Merivale sold it for £30 to Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase (1898–1974), whereafter it is untraced.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
- Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase (1898 - 1974), 14 January 1935, GBP 30
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP117
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP117
- 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. 36 as 'The Road going over Penmaen Mawr to Conway'
- Bibliography
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 108
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 47
Other entries in Tour of Wales, 1777
Francis Towne
View of a Mountain, Perhaps near Aberddwlas
View of a Mountain, Perhaps near Aberddwlas
Francis Towne
A View near Dolgelly with Part of Cader Idris
A View near Dolgelly with Part of Cader Idris
Francis Towne
A View of the Salmon Leap from Pont Aberglaslyn
A View of the Salmon Leap from Pont Aberglaslyn
Francis Towne
The West Front of Tintern Abbey
The West Front of Tintern Abbey
Chepstow Chepstow Museum and Art Gallery
Francis Towne
The Ruins of the Great Room in Ludlow Castle, Shopshire, where Milton’s Comus was Performed
The Ruins of the Great Room in Ludlow Castle, Shopshire, where Milton’s Comus was Performed
Footnotes
- 1 Oppé 1920, p.108 and note.
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Comment
This is one of two views of Penmaenmawr. See the Comment at FT096.
Paul Oppé’s note of this drawing reads: “117. Penmaenmawr. on the spot [. . .] , large inscr erased with 1777 over. Nothing on front. Word erased probably finished. Very loose wooly paint thin outline obscured & thin ful sunset colouring even[?] distant hills over sea. Heavy shadows & hatching in colour everywhere. Typical of late wash.” Judging by this note, this is probably the drawing described by Oppé as having a red sunset “added at a later date by an unlucky afterthought [. . .] No.31, Miss Merivale. It has a long inscription at the back of the mount which has been erased and replaced by the date 1777. There is no date on the drawing itself.”1 Oppé’s comments, and the erased word “finished”, suggest that the drawing was finished long after 1777, as is the case elsewhere (FT051).