- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A Scene on the Banks of the Dee
- Date
- 1777/07/17
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 216mm,
- image length 273mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower centre
- “F.Towne. delt. 1777 / No.42.” with an erased date
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “Scene on [the?] Banks of the Dee”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT104
- Description Sources
- Paul Oppé notes; Agnew’s records (image)
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 (BP123). In March 1936 (May according to the Barton Place catalogue) Judith Merivale sold it to Agnew’s (no.1866) for £18, who sold it the same day for £24 to David, Viscount Eccles (1904–1999). In 1969 it was on sale at John Baskett but it is otherwise untraced.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
- John Baskett (1907), 1969
- Viscount David Eccles (1904 - 1999), March 1936, GBP 25
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, March 1936, GBP 18, no. 1866
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP123
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP123
- 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. 27, 28, 29 or 43 as 'Banks of the Dee'
- Annual Exhibition of Water-Colour & Pencil Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1936, no. 144
- Exhibition of old master and English drawings, John Baskett, 1969, no. 24
- Bibliography
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 108
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.
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
Comment
Oppé’s note reads: “123. 8½ x 10¾ [216 x 273 mm] Scene on Banks of the Dee date on front erased [. . .] crumble outline, full green & yellow. Green brushed water, much gum & brush hatching. Yellow and red lurid sky. Heavy shadows.”1 This was probably drawn on 17 July 1777, as four of Towne’s Dee Valley views bear that date.