- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Lake Klönthal near Glarus
- Date
- ca. 1781/09/02
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image width 285mm,
- image length 466mm
- Support
- paper watermarked with a fleur-de-lis design
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “Lake of Clonthalee near Glaris / No26th. Sept 2nd 1781 light from the left hand in the morning / Francis Towne”
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT368
- Description Sources
- Examination; Christie's 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 (BP71). In 1933 Judith Merivale sold it to Squire Gallery for £6 10s. It was bought by F. O. Roberts, probably from Squire, and it descended to his niece, who sold the drawing at Christie’s on 13 July 1993, lot 24, where it was bought by Leger Galleries.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection
- Leger Galleries, London, 13 July 1993
- Christie's, London, London, 13 July 1993, lot 24
- F. O. Roberts
- Squire Gallery, London, 1933, GBP 6 10s
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP71
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP71
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
Other entries in C&I Honig Series: Northern Italy and Switzerland, August and September 1781
“Lago Torfi”, near Lugano
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
Waterfall between Chiavenna and Mount Splugen
In the Valley of the Grisons looking on Tusis
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Comment
This is a westward view of the lake, three miles east of Glarus and at the centre of the Klönthal valley, which Towne drew on his excursion down the Glarus valley. To the left rise the precipices of Glärnisch and the stream towards the foreground is called the Löntsch, which joins the Linth below Netstal (depicted in FT366). This lake, where Solomon Gessner had a summer retreat, was also visited by John Robert Cozens on his first continental tour of 1776–79 and by Thomas Smith in the 1780s or 1790s (see FT894). The lake was flooded in the twentieth century.