- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Chudleigh Rocks
- Date
- 1787
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 189mm,
- image length 219mm
- Support
- an oatmeal mount
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne. delt / 1787”
- in dark brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Waterfall at Chudleigh Rock / Francis Towne / 1787”
- in brown ink and presumably, as this is given in the Barton Place catalogue, the number “10”, obscured by framer’s tape
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT539
- Description Sources
- Examination
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 (BP206). Judith Merivale gave it to her niece, Patricia Rawlins, who bequeathed it to the current owner.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection
- Patricia Rawlins
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP206
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP206
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
Other entries in Canonteign, Chudleigh, and Dunsford, 1783–1803
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Comment
This largely monochrome sketch has been lightly coloured with yellow/brown and blue washes. Although by mounting and signing it Towne has surely signalled that he considered it complete, it is easy to imagine how the drawing could have been worked up much further to end up with the level of finish seen in a 1789 Canonteign waterfall view (FT560).
For Oppé’s brief note of this drawing, see the Comment at FT538.