Head of Lake Geneva

Description

Creator: Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)

Title(s)

Head of Lake Geneva

Date: 1781/09/13

Medium: Pencil, pen and brown ink, grey and blue washes

Dimensions

image width 263mm,
image length 379mm

Support: wove paper

Inscription

sheet, verso
“N^o.2 / Francis Town”
in brown ink

Object Type: Monochrome wash

Collection

(13.205/53)

Versions: The Head of Lake Geneva from Vevey, after Francis Towne

Catalogue Number: FT374

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 (BP79 or 81). In 1936 Judith Merivale sold it to Squire Gallery for £8. It was acquired by Agnes Lupton (1874–1950) and Norman Darnton Lupton (1875–1953) of Hyde Crook, Dorchester, Dorset, who bequeathed it to the present owner, Leeds City Art Gallery (13.205/53).

Associated People & Organisations: Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, 1953, 13.205/53; Agnes Lupton (1874 - 1950), Dorchester, 1936; Norman Darnton Lupton (1875 - 1953), Dorchester, 1936; Squire Gallery, London, 1936, GBP 8; Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP79 or 81; Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP79 or 81; John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825; James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816

Exhibition History: Watercolours and Drawings from the City Art Gallery, Leeds, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1960, no. 44; The Lupton Collection, Leeds City Art Gallery, 1972, no. 77

Bibliography: Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds Art Calendar, No. 26: Leeds, 1954, p. 13; Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 132; Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 98; William Coxe, Travels in Switzerland in a Series of Letters to William Melmouth Esq, T. Cadell: London, 1789, vol 2, p. 74

Comment

As Wilcox showed in his 1997 Tate catalogue, this is the left-hand portion of a three-sheet panorama that Towne drew on 11 September. The other two sheets are FT375 and FT376 (fig.1); all three are numbered 2. The view looks south from near Vevey over Lake Geneva towards the mountains of Savoy. At the left of the central sheet is the end of the Rhône valley, down which Towne would have travelled to reach Martigny and Chamonix. John White Abbott copied this panorama (FT832) as well as another, now lost, that Towne made nearby (FT378, the copy is FT833). A further view of the same subject, but from a somewhat different viewpoint, was made on 13 September (FT379).

**Figure 1.**
Francis Towne, *FT374, FT375 and FT376 assembled together*, 1781

Coxe described the view of the lake from Vevey as being of greater interest than from Geneva, which may explain Towne’s focus:

The borders of this part of the lake are much more contrasted, wild and picturesque, than those about Geneva: the mountains of the Vallais and Savoy boldly project into the water, and form a semi-circular chain that encloses the lake, except where they are divided by the Rhone; which flows into it a few leagues from Vevay.¹

by Richard Stephens

Footnotes

1 Coxe 1789, vol.2, p.74.

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Provenance

Comment

Other entries in Lake Geneva and Chamonix series, September 1781