- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
- View at Ambleside
- Ambleside
- At Ambleside
- Date
- 1786
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour with gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 157mm,
- image length 475mm
- Support
- two sheets
- Mount
- mounted by the artist on paper watermarked “CURTEIS & SON”
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “No.3 F.Towne / delt. [“1786” scratched out]”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No3 / A View at Ambleside in Westmorland near Sir Michael Flemings in the road to Keswick drawn on the spot by Francis Towne. / [erasure]”
- with “A View [...] Towne” on three separate lines
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (T01019)
- Catalogue Number
- FT457
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum 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 granddaughter Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853–1923) inherited the drawing in 1915 and by 1929 it was in the collection of Herbert Powell, who in that year gave it in trust to the National Art Collections Fund, which presented it in 1967 to the current owner, the Tate Gallery (T01019). This is presumably the View at Ambleside that on 6 March 1922 Emily Buckingham sold to Agnew’s (no.10123) for £45 and that (on 27 February 1922 according to Agnew’s) Colonel F. A. Powell(?) purchased there for £65.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Tate, London, 1967, T01019
- National Art Collections Fund, 1929
- Herbert Powell
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 6 March 1922, GBP 45, no.10123
- Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853 - 1923), 1915
- 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. 67 as 'Ambleside', or 75, 83 or 91 as 'At Ambleside'
- [?] Exhibition of Selected Watercolour Drawings by Artists of the Early English School, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1922, no. 77 as 'Ambleside 1786'
- National Art Collections Fund Travelling Trust, 1930, no. 122
- Viewfinders, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 1980, no. 62
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 139
Other entries in Lake District, 1786
Francis Towne
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
Francis Towne
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
Francis Towne
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
Francis Towne
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
Francis Towne
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
Francis Towne
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
Francis Towne
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
Francis Towne
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
Francis Towne
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
Francis Towne
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
Francis Towne
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
Francis Towne
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
Francis Towne
Elter Force, near Ambleside
Elter Force, near Ambleside
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
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Comment
This is a view on the road north to Keswick, near the village of Rydal, about a mile beyond Ambleside. Nab Scar is the mountain on the right, and Loughrigg is on the left; Rydal Beck is the stream in the mid-ground. Towne’s inscription refers to Rydal Hall, the seat of Sir Michael le Fleming, 4th Bt (1748–1806), who remodelled the house and in whose grounds Towne sketched (see FT460, FT463, FT474, FT478).