- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Ambleside, taken behind the Inn
- Date
- 1786/08/14
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black and grey inks, watercolour, gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 157mm,
- image length 236mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne delt. 1786 / No.22”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.22 / Ambleside. taken behind the Inn head of the Lake of Windermere. Westmoreland / drawn on the spot by Francis Towne / [“August 14th. 1786” scratched out] / London / [“Leicester Square / July 6th. 17. . .” scratched out]. / Evening light from the / right hand 7 O Clock”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT479
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
Provenance
Owned by Francis Alexander Gustavus Skardon Douglas (active 1927, d.1957), a descendant of John White Abbott, who sold it on 3 September 1946 to Agnew’s (no.4751), from whom it was bought on 2 May 1947 for £40 by the present owner, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery (Inv. K.1684/Acc. 26/1947).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, 2 May 1947, GBP 40, Inv. K.1684/Acc. 26/1947
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 2 May 1947, no.4751
- Francis Alexander Gustavus Skardon Douglas (active 1927 - 1957)
- John White Abbott (1763 - 1851)
- 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', 72, as 'Part of Ambleside', or 75, 83 or 91 as 'At Ambleside'
- unidentified exhibition or display, 1966
- unidentified exhibition, 1974
- Autumn unidentified exhibition, Bristol, 1976
- unidentified exhibition or display, 1977
- unidentified exhibition, 1983
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 137
- Peter Bicknell, The picturesque secenery of the Lake District, St Paul's Bibliographies: Winchester, 1990, p. 189
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
Footnotes
- 1 Bicknell 1990, p.189.
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Comment
This is a view of Stock Ghyll, a fast-flowing tributary of the River Rothay, which powered several Ambleside mills, looking broadly west over the top of Ambleside to Loughrigg. Towne drew a similar Ambleside scene on one of the large sheets of Italian paper (FT518), and a further drawing now at Ulster Museum (FT519), although not inscribed as an Ambleside view, may be from the same area. The inn Towne refers to was known as the Salutation (now the Best Western Salutation Hotel); given the late hour of Towne’s sketch and his repeated visits to the Groves, it is likely that he and his party were residents there. The inn was rated positively by one visitor of 1782:
The hill is perhaps the one from which Towne drew FT456, as it was very near Stock Ghyll and the inn.