- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Bowder Stone in Borrowdale
- Date
- ca. 1786/08
- Medium
- Pencil, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 216mm,
- image length 340mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “Boulderstone in Borrowdale”(?)
- in pencil
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT510
- Description Sources
- Paul Oppé notes
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 (BP154). On 12 April 1946 Judith Merivale’s executors sold it to Agnew’s (no.4547), where on 13 September 1946 it was bought for £35 less commission of £1 15s. by Sir John Heathcoat Amory, Bt (1894-1972), who sold it back to Agnew’s (no.4777) on 7 November 1946 for £35. Agnew’s sold it on 13 December 1946 for £42 to Andrew Michael Jaffe (1923–1997), whereafter it is untraced.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
- Andrew Michael Jaffé (1923 - 1997), 13 December 1946, GBP 42
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 7 November 1946, GBP 35, no.4777
- Sir John Heathcoat Amory (1894 - 1972), 13 September 1946, GBP 35
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 12 April 1946, no.4547
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP154
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP154
- 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. 91 or 92 as 'The Bouder Stone in Burrowdale'
- [?] Annual Exhibition of Water-Colour & Pencil Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1936, no. 81
- Bibliography
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 121
Other entries in Lake District, 1786
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
Elter Force, near Ambleside
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
Footnotes
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Comment
Paul Oppé recorded this as “Boulderstone in Borrowdale, only pencil, inscription on verso”.1 It seems that “only pencil” indicates that the drawing lacks a pen outline, as in his article Oppé refers to Towne’s “two remarkable drawings of the Boulder stone [in which] he works entirely without pen outline, trusting wholly to delicate washes of faint colour. But equally in these cases he attempts nothing but a clear and steady sunlight effect.”2 However, the other drawing (FT509) definitely has a pen outline, albeit less emphatic than in many other cases. Paul Oppé described FT510 as a “stronger outline than Miss B’s [FT509], rather more colour hatching and less light atmosphere”.1
In 1935 Judith Merivale took this drawing to the Victoria and Albert Museum to have it “un-foxed”.4