- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Elter Force, near Ambleside
- Elter Force, near the Ambleside Fall
- Elter Force, Westmorland
- Date
- 1786
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown and grey inks, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 265mm,
- image length 381mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne. delt. / 1786”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “morning light from the left hand / Elter Force near Ambleside / Westmorland drawn on / the spot by Francis Towne. 1786 / Leicester Square / London / 1790”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT525
- Description Sources
- 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 (BP143). Around 1937 Judith Merivale tried to sell it through Agnew’s but it was returned to them unsold that year. It was in the collection of B. C. Pritchard prior to its sale at Christie’s on 14 August 1942 for 22 guineas to Meatyard (many thanks to Timothy Wilcox for this information). By 1945 it was owned by Donald Henderson, who gave it that year to the current owner, the National Gallery of Art, Victoria (Acc. no.1482-4).
- Associated People & Organisations
- National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1945, no.1482-4
- Donald Henderson, 1945
- Meatyard, 14 August 1942, GBP 22 guineas
- Christie's, London, 14 August 1942
- B. C. Pritchard
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP143
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP143
- 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. 52 as 'Elter Force, Westmoreland or 89, as Elter Force'
- Annual Water Colour Exhibition 1926, The Judge's Lodgings, Winchester, 1926, no. 122
- Annual Exhibition of Water-Colours & Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1934, no. 75 as 'Elter Force, near the Ambleside Fall (1786)'
- [?] Annual Exhibition of Water-Colour & Pencil Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1937, no. 82 as 'Elter Force, Westmorland (1786)'
- Bibliography
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 116
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
Footnotes
- 1 Paul Oppé records: letter from Judith Merivale to Oppé, 5 June 1931.
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Comment
Towne’s “Elter Force” is more commonly known as Skelwith Force, part of the River Brathay as it flows out of the west end of Elterwater, a small lake just east of the hamlet of Skelwith Bridge near Ambleside. Towne has made a topographically accurate view of the waterfall and its rocks, occupying the lower half of the work, but has rearranged the upper half of the composition to give the falls a more effective backdrop. He has set woods on the other bank of the river far back from the falls, making them appear small and further away than in the actual scene. Lingmoor Fell—the mountain in the distance—the edges of Elterwater itself, and the Langdale Pikes in the extreme-right distance are not visible from Skelwith Force, but the intervening land is here opened up to provide the viewer with a horizon and to place the waterfall in the context of well-known natural features. It seems likely that Towne made a sketch of the falls, then walked along the path towards Elterwater, where at some point he sketched the upper half of this work. Towne made other sketches of the waterfall and lake on 12 August (FT472, FT473, FT497; FT523 is undated).
Agnew’s files state that a drawing of Elter Force was sold to them (no.2333) in February 1937 by Mary Ann Loveband for £8, which they sold on 16 February 1937 to Mrs Bruce Wills or Willis for £12 12s. If this is correct, then either a third drawing called Elter Force exists (not catalogued here) or else, having failed to sell it through Agnew’s, the Misses Merivales gave this drawing to their cousin Mary Ann Loveband, who sold it very shortly afterwards. Certainly Judith Merivale had considered selling it as early as 1931, when Winslow Ames, the first Director of the Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, USA, had visited her. She described the work then as “Coloured – Waterfall with cubistic Rocks” and asked Paul Oppé—who was advising her on prices—to take into account that it was one of her favourites (he recommended asking £60).1