- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- On the Topsham Road
- Date
- 1813
- Medium
- Pen and ink, and blue/grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image height 111mm,
- image width 184mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “On the Topsham Topsham Road, Devonshire / 1813 / Francis Towne”
- in ink
- Part of
-
- 1812-1815 Sketchbook
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT738
- 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 granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 within a sketchbook containing FT733 to FT751. Probably the book was among the “two small sketchbooks and five small drawings late in date” that Judith Merivale sold to Squire Gallery in 1945 for £50. By early 1946 it was owned by the Fine Art Society who sold it on 21 or 23 January for £26 5s. to Agnew’s (no.4407), where on 1 March 1946 it was bought by Sir John Heathcoat Amory, Bt (1894–1972), who sold it back to Agnew’s (no.7897) on 31 January 1955, where it was bought by Bruce Howe for £42. In 1973 it was given anonymously to the current owner, Rhode Island School of Design (73.204.48).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Rhode Island Museum of Art, School of Design, Providence, 1973, 73.204.48
- Dr Bruce Howe, GBP 42
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 31 January 1953, no.7897
- Sir John Heathcoat Amory (1894 - 1972), 1 March 1946
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, January 1946, GBP 26.5s, no.4407
- The Fine Art Society, London, London, 1946
- [?] Squire Gallery, London, 1945
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915
Inherited within a sketchbook containing FT733 to FT751. - Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915
Inherited within a sketchbook containing FT733 to FT751. - John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
Other entries in 1812–15 Sketchbook
From the West India Dock Blackwall looking towards the Royal Naval College, Greenwich
Footnotes
- 1 Donn 1965, pl.7b.
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Comment
This is presumably the road along the Exe estuary between Exeter and Topsham.1 Evidently Towne wrote his inscription and crossed it out, thinking he had made a mistake, only to add it back again once he realised it was correct. This circumstance, and the quite neat grey ink hand, indicate that the inscription was made some time after the drawing was made.