- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
- Looking from Ambleside across Windermere
- Date
- 1786/08/09
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour with gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 156mm,
- image length 238mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “F.Towne delt 1786 No.12’”
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- indistinct
- Spink’s records say the inscription is the same as on the mount
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Looking from Ambleside across the Lake of Windermere Morning light from the left hand drawn by Francis Towne and dated August 9th 1786”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT467
- Description Sources
- Examination; Christie's records (image): Spink'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. Merivale’s granddaughter Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853–1923) inherited the drawing in 1915 and it is thereafter untraced until acquired by 1952 by Norman Dakeyne Newall (1888–1952), whose heirs sold it at Christie’s in 13 December 1979, lot 71, for £12,000 to Spink & Son. On 24 January 1985 it was sold by Spink to a US corporate collection, the collection of BNY Mellon, Pittsburgh, the current owners.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Collection of BNY Mellon, Pittsburgh, 24 January 1985
- Spink & Son, London, London, 13 December 1979, GBP 12000
- Christie's, London, London, 13 December 1979, lot 71
- Norman Dakeyne Newall (1888 - 1952), 1952
- Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853 - 1923), 1915
- 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. 66 as 'Looking from Ambleside across Windermere'
- English Watercolour Drawings Annual Exhibition 1982, Spink, 1982, no. 7
- The Bank of New York Mellon Collection: A loan exhibition of works on paper, Hazlitt Holland Hibbert, 2007
- Bibliography
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 113
Other entries in Lake District, 1786
Francis Towne
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
Francis Towne
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
Francis Towne
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
Francis Towne
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
Francis Towne
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
Francis Towne
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
Francis Towne
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
Francis Towne
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
Francis Towne
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
Francis Towne
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
Francis Towne
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
Francis Towne
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
Francis Towne
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
Francis Towne
Elter Force, near Ambleside
Elter Force, near Ambleside
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
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Comment
This is a view looking across the head of Windermere to the area called Waterhead. Towne drew this in the morning of 9 August and made FT468 during the afternoon.
This has touches of late work in the introduction of figures. The graduated colouring, from brown to green to blue, is also more formal than most of Towne’s Ambleside sketches.