Description
Creator
Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
Title(s)
  • At Oxford
Date
1813/08/25
Medium
Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour
Dimensions
  • image height 263mm,
  • image width 177mm
Inscription
  • sheet, verso
  • “No.4 / at Oxford / St Marys & Ratcliff Library / from 9 to 2 past 10 in the Morng / August 25 1813 / Francis Towne delt”
  • in grey ink over pencil
Part of
  • 1813 Sketchbook
Object Type
Watercolour

Collection
Catalogue Number
FT755
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 (1745–1844) 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 as part of a sketchbook containing FT752 to FT764, which they sold in 1927 to Walker’s Galleries for £60. In 1928 Augustus Walker (1866/1867–1965) gave it to the current owner, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (DBB.1827).

Associated People & Organisations

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1928, DBB.1827
Augustus Walker (1866/67 - 1965), 1928
Walker's Galleries, London, 1927, GBP 60
Within a sketchbook containing FT752 to FT764.
Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915
Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915
John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
Exhibition History
24th Annual Exhibition of Early English Watercolours, Walker's Galleries, 1928, no. 78
Francis Towne, Tate Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery, 24 June 1997 - 4 January 1998, no. 70
Bibliography
David Blaney Brown, Ashmolean Museum Catalogue of Drawings Vol 4: Earlier English Drawings, Clarendon: Oxford, 1982, p. 630
Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 130

Comment

This is a view of St Mary the Virgin from Magpie Lane, with Oriel College on the left. The dome of the Radcliffe Camera is just visible behind the spire.

by Richard Stephens

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.