- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Eagle Crag, Borrowdale
- Date
- ca. 1786/08
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey and brown inks, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 210mm,
- image length 330mm
- Support
- on paper with a Vryheyt watermark with the initials of Joseph Portal, ca. 1779 (according to the 1978 Christie’s catalogue), mounted by the artist
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Eagle Cragg, Bull Cragg and hanging Hay Stack / Langstrath Beck turning sharply to the left at the foreground”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT511
- Description Sources
- Examination; Sotheby's records (image); Christie's records
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. The drawing is or was inscribed with the name “Rose” or “Rose Merivale”. This is perhaps John Herman Merivale’s daughter Rose Mary Merivale (b.1823, alive 1901) or, perhaps more likely, Rosamund Merivale (b.1912, later Mrs MacBrien). By 1951 it was the property of Canon Francis Henry Dumville Smythe (1872/1873–1966), who sold it at Christie’s on 13 March 1961, lot 161, for £304 10s. including fees to Agnew’s (no.1230), who sold it on 17 March 1961 to Joseph Hawksley Elliot of Sheffield (1884–1978), whose daughter sold it at Christie’s on 22 March 1978, lot 85, for £1,350. It was again sold at Christie’s on 22 March 1988, lot 47, for £4,200. It was withdrawn from sale at Sotheby’s on 15 June 2000, lot 185, whereafter it is untraced.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
- Sotheby's, London, London, 15 June 2000, lot 185
Withdrawn from sale at Sotheby's on 15 June 2000 - Private Collection, 22 March 1988, GBP 4200
- Christie's, London, London, 22 March 1988, lot 47
- Private Collection, 22 March 1978, GBP 1350
- Christie's, London, London, 22 March 1978, lot 85
- Joseph Hawksley Elliot (1884 - 1978), Sheffield, 17 March 1961
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 13 March 1961, GBP 304 10s, no.1230
- Christie's, London, London, 13 March 1961, lot 161
- Joseph Hawksley Elliot (1884 - 1978), 17 March 1961
- Canon Francis Henry Dumville Smythe (1872/73 - 1966), 1951
- [?] Rosamund MacBrien (née Merivale, later Young) (1912)
- [?] Rose Mary Merivale (1823 - 1902)
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- [?] Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 78 as 'Eagle Cragg, Burrowdale'
- Three Exeter Artists of the Eighteenth Century: Francis Hayman RA, Francis Towne, John White Abbott, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 1951, no. 62
- English Watercolours from the Collection of the Revd. Canon F. H. D. Smythe, South London Art Gallery, 1954, no. 95
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 Langstrathdale, south-east of Borrowdale in the Borrowdale Fells near Stonethwaite and Rossthwaite. Eagle Crag is the big lump to the left of centre and the river is a branch of the Derwent. FT512 is an almost identical view except for the treatment of foreground.