- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Madonna San Giacomo in Chiavenna
- Date
- ca. 1781/08/28
- Medium
- Pencil (?), pen and grey ink, monochrome washes
- Dimensions
-
- image width 273mm,
- image length 457mm
- Support
- paper watermarked “C&I HONIG”
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “Madonna San Giacomo in Chiavenna Evening Sun from the right hand August the 28th. 1781. No.13”
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT354
- Description Sources
- Leger Galleries records; 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 (BP57). According to the Barton Place catalogue, in January 1936 Judith Merivale sold the drawing to Squire Gallery for £3, but if so, it must have been reacquired or otherwise returned to her, as on 12 April 1946 Judith Merivale’s executors sold the drawing to Agnew’s (no.4548), where on 23 April 1946 it was acquired for £85 less commission of £4 5s. by Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973), whose heirs sold it at Christie’s on 20 November 1984, lot 73, to Leger Galleries for £6,000, whereafter it is untraced.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
- Christie's, London, London, 20 November 1984, GBP 6000, lot 73
- Sir William Worsley (1890 - 1973), 23 April 1946, GBP 85
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 12 April 1946, no.4548
- [?] Squire Gallery, London, January 1936, GBP 3
According to the Barton Place catalogue - Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP57
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP57
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 141
- Sir William Worsley, Early English Water-Colours at Hovingham Hall: 1963, p. 10
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
The drawing shows the Lira valley, up which Towne travelled on his way over the Splugen Pass. The title might refer to the church of the Madonna di Gallivaggio in the valley or else perhaps a chapel in S. Giacomo, a village a few miles north of Chiavenna.