- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Low Wood near Ambleside
- Low Wood near Ambleside the head of the Lake of Windermere
- Ambleside
- Date
- 1786/08/16
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 156mm,
- image length 477mm
- Support
- two sheets
- Mount
- mounted by the artist[?]
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne. / delt. 1786 No.26”
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “No.26 / Low Wood near Ambleside the head of the Lake of Windermere. / Drawn by / Francis Towne August 16. 1786 / Light from the right hand.”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT482
- 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 granddaughter Frances Solly (b.1858) inherited the drawing (doubtless from her sister Emily Buckingham, who died in 1923). In 1948 it was on sale at Walker’s Galleries, although it was also sold that year by Spink to the current owner, Bolton Museum and Art Gallery (BOLMG:1963.P.1), for £150.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1948, GBP 150, BOLMG:1963.P.1
- Spink & Son, London, London, 1948
- Walker's Galleries, London, 1948
- Frances Ann Laura Solly (1858 - alive in 1932), 1923
- 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. 80 as 'Low-Wood near Ambleside'
- unidentified exhibition, Walker's Galleries, 1948, no. 127 as 'Low Wood near Ambleside the head of the Lake of Windermere. August 16, 1786 Light from the right hand. No.26'
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
Footnotes
- 1 The Times, 3 May 1786.
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Comment
The building here is Low Wood Inn, now a hotel. Towne made the view from an almost identical spot to the one used at FT485, although in this instance he is looking south down Windermere, not west across it. The Inn and the cluster of trees in the centre of the view also appear in FT468, at a somewhat greater distance.
This is one of five Windermere views dated 16 August. One is timed at 4:00 pm (FT483) and two others were “Taken after the sun was down” (FT484, FT485). The drawing here also appears to be an evening view, but the timing of the fifth is unclear (FT498). Towne was perhaps attracted to the edge of Windermere at this time of the day with the success in mind of Philip James de Loutherbourg’s Royal Academy exhibit of 1786. In the words of one reviewer, “Loutherbourg’s sun-set near the ferry of Windermere, is beautiful beyond description. It represents a calm piece of water reflecting the hills and country round.”1
Paul Oppé saw this drawing in Emily Buckingham’s collection on 16 July 1915. Although the museum’s records state that it is not in an eighteeenth-century mount, the completeness of the colouring, the length of the inscription, and the fact of Emily Buckingham’s ownership (when unfinished drawings from the sketchbook were retained by the Misses Merivale) suggest that it was once mounted.