- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Bay of Naples
- Date
- ca. 1781/03
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image width 234mm,
- image length 318mm
- Support
- paper watermarked with a fleur de list within a coronet design
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “Bay of Naples / 21” in black ink and "Francis Towne" in brown ink
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT245
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the work
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 (BP34). Judith Merivale sold it to Squire Gallery in August 1936 for £4 10s., from where Sir Bruce Sterling Ingram (1877–1963) probably bought it, as he owned the drawing by 1937. Ingram retained the drawing until his death, when it was acquired by the present owner, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (no.1821).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Ashmolean Museum
- Sir Bruce Stirling Ingram (1877 - 1963)
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844)
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945)
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928)
- Squire Gallery
- James White (1744 - 1825)
- Exhibition History
- Masters of Maritime Art. A Second Loan Exhibition from the Collection of Capt. Bruce S. Ingram OBE MC, P&D Colnaghi, London, 1937, no. 45
- English Drawings Purchased from the Collection of Sir Bruce Ingram, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1963, no. 92
- Original Eyes, Tate Gallery, London, 1991
- Bibliography
- David Blaney Brown, Ashmolean Museum Catalogue of Drawings Vol 4: Earlier English Drawings, Clarendon: Oxford, 1982, p. 628
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 144
- Luke Herrmann, British Landscape Painting of the 18th Century, Faber: London, 1973, p. 77
Other entries in Naples, March 1781
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Comment
In his catalogue of the Ashmolean collection, Brown sees in Towne's thin band of land on the horizon “a general impression of harbour buildings (perhaps a distant view of Naples from the south east)”.