- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Pont Ddu
- Pont Dû, near Festiniog, Merioneth
- Date
- 1777/07/05
- Medium
- Pen and ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 216mm,
- image length 279mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “Pont dhu [. . .] drawn on the Spot”, numbered “17”, and dated “5th July 1777”
- Watermark
-
- verso
- “V&L”
- paper watermarked with a fleur-de-lis design with the letters
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (17591)
- Catalogue Number
- FT083
- Description Sources
- Paul Oppé notes; Barton Place catalogue
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 (BP108). Judith Merivale sold it to Squire Gallery in July 1935 for £12 (Herbert Milling of Squire Gallery visited Judith Merivale in November 1933 and expressed an interest then in buying this drawing). In 1936 it appears to have been on sale at Walker’s Galleries, and is now in a private collection in Clwyd (Inland Revenue Tax Exempt Heritage Item Ref. 17591).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection, Clwyd, 17591
- [?] Walker's Galleries, London, 1936
- Squire Gallery, London, July 1935, GBP 12
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP108
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP108
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
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 Paul Oppé records: notes, ca. 1915.
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Comment
Pont Ddu (meaning “Black Bridge”) may be a scene near the waterfalls of FT082, Rhaeadr Ddu, or at some unidentified location nearer Ffestiniog. Modern maps locate “Pont-ddu” not in North Wales but as a crossing over the river Cywyn near Carmarthen.
Paul Oppé’s note of the drawing reads: