- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Buttermere
- Date
- 1786/08/22
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, blue and grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image width 153mm,
- image length 236mm
- Support
- paper watermarked with a Strasburg Lily design
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “No.39. Buttermere August 22nd 1786. 1 O Clock light from the right hand / F.Towne”
- in ink and “light from the right hand 1 O Clock” in pencil
- Part of
-
- Partially-disbound sketchbook sold by Judith Merivale to H. B. Milling of Squire Gallery
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT495
- Description Sources
- Christie’s records (image); Paul Oppé notes
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 An Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 within a partially disbound sketchbook containing FT455, FT462, FT470, FT471, FT472, FT475, FT476, FT477, FT478, FT480, FT494, FT495, FT496. In February 1945 Judith Merivale sold the book to H. B. Milling of Squire Gallery for £25. Later the drawing was owned by Joseph Hawksley Elliot of Sheffield (1884–1978), whose daughter sold it at Christie’s on 14 March 1978, lot 83, for £2,200 to Anthony Reed, whereafter it is untraced.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
- Anthony Reed (20th century), London, 14 March 1978, GBP 2200
- Christie's, London, London, 14 March 1978, lot 83
- Joseph Hawksley Elliot (1884 - 1978), Sheffield
- Horace Bernard Milling (1898 - 1954), London, February 1945, GBP 25
- 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
- Bibliography
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 122
Other entries in Lake District, 1786
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
Elter Force, near Ambleside
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
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Comment
This is a view of Buttermere a little closer to the water’s edge than FT494. It was on a page in the 1786 sketchbook after FT494 and before FT496. All three of these works were unfinished, with preparatory coloured washes only.