Rydal Fell and Loughrigg

Description

Creator: Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)

Title(s)

Rydal Fell and Loughrigg

Date: ca. 1786/08

Medium: Pencil, pen and brown and grey inks, watercolour, scratching out

Dimensions

image width 156mm,
image length 469mm

Support: two sheets of laid paper

Inscription

sheet, verso
centre top of left sheet, “Luffrigg” in small pencil; top left of right sheet, “No7” in small brown ink; top centre of right sheet, “B Rydal Cragg or” in small brown ink over pencil

Part of

Partially-disbound sketchbook sold by Judith Merivale to H. B. Milling of Squire Gallery

Object Type: Watercolour

Collection

(1974.7)

Catalogue Number: FT462

Description Sources: Examination; 1994 Brussels catalogue (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 partially disbound sketchbook containing FT455, FT462, FT470, FT471, FT472, FT475, FT476, FT477, FT478, FT480, FT494, FT495, FT496. In February 1945 Judith Merivale sold it to H. B. Milling of Squire Gallery for £25. The drawing was later owned by Milling’s widow, Mrs William Wycliffe Spooner, who retained it in 1962 (William Spooner’s dates, 1882–1967). In 1974 it was given by Viscount Astor to the current owner, the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (1974.70). The museum records also note that Stephen Somerville owned the drawing at some point (presumably he sold it to Astor?).

Associated People & Organisations: Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, New York, 1974, 1974.7; Viscount Astor, 1974; [?] Stephen Somerville, London; William Wycliffe Spooner (1882 - 1967)
Widow of H. B. Milling; Horace Bernard Milling (1898 - 1954), London, February 1945, GBP 25; Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915; Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915; John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825; James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816

Exhibition History: Sketching at Home and Abroad: British landscape drawings, 1750-1850, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1992, no. 95; Gainsborough to Ruskin: British Landscape Drawings and Watercolours from the Morgan Library, Musee Communal d'Ixelles, 1994, no. 105

Bibliography: Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 149

Comment

This is a view in Rydal Park, looking broadly west. Loughrigg Fell is on the left, and Nab Scar on the right. Silver How is in the central far distance.

This is a fine example of Towne’s crisp wash-and-pen drawing style. There is some scratching out on the far-left mountain tops, a technique Towne used to good effect also in the smaller Source of the Arveyron watercolour of 1781 (FT339). While the ink is overwhelmingly brown, there are small areas of grey ink too, such as in the far-right bottom corner, where the ground to the right of the path is defined in grey, and in the trunks and branches of the bush just right of centre foreground. Presumably Towne added these touches after the main brown-ink sketching was complete.

This drawing was in the 1786 sketchbook after an outline of Ambleside numbered 1 (FT455) and before a view of Buttermere numbered 15 (FT470). There seem to have been two Lake District works numbered 7 (also FT461). The sheets have been cut to neaten them where they join

by Richard Stephens

Other entries in Lake District, 1786

Francis Towne

A View at Ambleside 1786

A View at Ambleside

Francis Towne

Ambleside 1786

Ambleside

Francis Towne

Ambleside 1786

Ambleside

Francis Towne

A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick 1786

A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick

Francis Towne

Near Ambleside 1786

Near Ambleside

Francis Towne

Loughrigg, near Ambleside 1786

Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum

Loughrigg, near Ambleside

Francis Towne

Lake District Sketch 1786

Lake District Sketch

Francis Towne