- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Dunkeswell Abbey
- Date
- 1783/08/20
- Medium
- Pen and black ink, watercolour, gum, on laid paper
- Dimensions
-
- image width 189mm,
- image length 265mm
- Support
- watermark similar to Heawood’s design no.107 c–k
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne / delt”
- in light brown ink
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “No11 / Dunkeswell Abbey August the 20th 1783”
- in brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT405
- 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 (BP185) and gave it in 1921 to their nephew Philip Merivale (1886–1946). It descended to Mrs E. W. Evans (sister of John Merivale of 54 Eaton Square, London), who sold it (also FT073, FT623) on 1 December 1965 to Agnew’s (no.5730). On 17 January 1966 Agnew’s sold it for £500 to Paul Mellon (1907–1999), who gave it to the current owner, the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B1986.29.232; gift to Yale, 1986).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1986
- Mr Paul Mellon (1907 - 1999), London, 17 January 1966, £500
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 1 December 1965
no.5730 - Mrs E. W. Evans, London
- Philip Merivale (1886 - 1946), 1921
- 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. 38
- Benjamin Donn, 'A Map of the County of Devon', Benjamin Donn: A Commemorative Volume, Devon and Cornwall Record Society and The University of Exeter: Exeter, 1965, plate 8a
- Todd Gray, The Garden History of Devon - An illustrated guide to sources, University of Exeter Press: Exeter, 1995, p. 92
Other entries in North Devon, 1783
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Comment
Dunkeswell Abbey in the Blackdown Hills1 was an estate built by Elizabeth Simcoe on the site of a thirteenth-century Cistercian abbey,2 whose former gatehouse Towne has depicted. It is a mile or two north of Woolford Lodge, the home of Eliza and Graves Simcoe following their marriage in the early 1780s. Graves Simcoe was buried in a chapel at Dunkeswell.
The couple were clients of Towne, and a drawing by Eliza, perhaps a copy after Towne, is dated 1783 (FT883). A friend of the Simcoes called Miss Hunt wrote a poem on Dunkeswell in 1786:
The free curls of the black pen in the right-hand trees are very similar to the style used at Indicnowle (FT400, FT401, FT402). The rich red-brown structure covered in green foliage recalls some Roman drawings such as of the Baths of Caracalla. The verso contains some blotches of watercolour wash.