- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Oakley Park
- Date
- 1777/07/22
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and ink, grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image width 286mm,
- image length 473mm
- Support
- paper with a vertical crease down its centre and damaged at the top edge, watermarked with the letters "IV"
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “No.47 July 22. 1777 / Okely Park / Drawn on the Spot by Francis Towne”
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Collection
-
- (2002P8)
- Catalogue Number
- FT110
- Description Sources
- Paul Oppé records; 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 (BP182). Judith Merivale sold it in January 1936 to Squire Gallery for £5 10s. By 1962 it had been acquired by Sir Bruce Sterling Ingram (1877–1963) and was given or bequeathed by him to Professor Luke Herrmann, by whom it was given in 2002 to the current owner, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (2002P8).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 2002, 2002P8
- Luke Herrmann
- Sir Bruce Stirling Ingram (1877 - 1963), 1962
- Squire Gallery, London, January 1936, GBP 5 10s
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP182
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP182
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Three Exeter Artists of the Eighteenth Century: Francis Hayman RA, Francis Towne, John White Abbott, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 1951, no. 77
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 144
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 34
Other entries in Tour of Wales, 1777
View of a Mountain, Perhaps near Aberddwlas
A View near Dolgelly with Part of Cader Idris
A View of the Salmon Leap from Pont Aberglaslyn
The West Front of Tintern Abbey
Chepstow Chepstow Museum and Art Gallery
The Ruins of the Great Room in Ludlow Castle, Shopshire, where Milton’s Comus was Performed
Footnotes
- 1 Paul Oppé records: notes, ca. 1915.
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Comment
Oakley Park, near Ludlow in Shropshire, was in 1777 the seat of Edward, 2nd Baron Clive (1754–1839), who had succeeded his father Robert Clive (of India and MP for Shrewsbury, 1760–74) in 1774.
Paul Oppé’s note reads:
According to the National Art Collections Fund’s records, the drawing is dated 1800 on the verso, but this is surely a later inscription not made by Towne.