A View of Machynlleth

Description

Creator: Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)

Title(s)

A View of Machynlleth
Mackynlleth in ditto [ie North Wales]

Date: 1777/06/28

Medium: Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour

Dimensions

image width 215mm,
image length 280mm

Mount: mounted by the artist on paper with an indistinct watermark

Inscription

sheet, recto, lower left
“N^o10 / F.Towne delt June 28. 1777”

Inscription

artist's mount, verso
“No.10 / A View of Machynlleth North Wales / drawn by Francis Towne”

Object Type: Watercolour

Collection

Catalogue Number: FT076

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 granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 (“Machynllyth June 1777 framed JAM”, no BP number given, listed between FT521 and FT533). The drawing remained with the Merivales until at least 1932, when it was exhibited, and perhaps until Judith Merivale’s death in 1945, as no note of its sale exists in the Barton Place catalogue. On 11 January 1961 it was bought by Agnew’s (no.1030) from Mrs L. S. Robinson (see also 102) and on 15 March 1961 it was bought by the current owner, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Associated People & Organisations: Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 15 March 1961, PD.4-1961; Thomas Agnew & Sons, 11 January 1961, no.1030; L. S. Robinson, 1961; Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, no BP number given; Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, no BP number given; 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. 26 as 'Mackynlleth in ditto [ie North Wales]'; Loan Exhibition of Works by Early Devon Painters Born Before the Year 1800, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 1932, no. 119

Bibliography: Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 130; Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, A Tour Through Monmouthshire and Wales Made in the Months of June and July 1774 and in the months of June, July and August 1777: Salisbury, 1781, pp. 104-105

Comment

This is a view of Machynlleth from the east. Towne is clearly travelling westwards into the town on the main coast road along the Dovey valley, and will have just passed through the village of Penegoes, birthplace of Richard Wilson.

Wyndham described the view of Machynlleth Towne has drawn:

Machynlleth lies, not unpleasantly, in a small verdant plain. The mountains closely surround it, the summits of which are rarely free from the clouds, and whose shade deprives the town of even half that influence, which the sun sparingly sheds over this irregular county. This is the extreme west angle of Montgomery shire.¹

As with other mounted drawings, Towne has worked up and tidied the foreground.

by Richard Stephens

Footnotes

1 Wyndham 1781, pp.104–5.

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Provenance

Comment

Other entries in Tour of Wales, 1777

A View of Bridgnorth Castle, Shropshire 1777

The Wrekin 1777

Wenlock Priory 1780

Wenlock Priory 1777

Pistyll Rhaeadr 1777

Lake Bala 1777

A Welsh Scene, Perhaps near Aberddwlas 1777

View of a Mountain, Perhaps near Aberddwlas 1777

Landscape, Perhaps at Aberddwlas 1777