- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Rydal Water
- Date
- 1786
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 157mm,
- image length 237mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “F.Towne . delt. 1786 / No8.”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Taken at the going off of / a storm / No.8 / Rydal Water / with Mr. Jones’s & Sir Michael Fleming / Drawn by Francis Towne / [“1786” scratched out] / London [“Leicester Square / 1790” scratched out]”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT463
- Description Sources
- Examination; Wilcox 1997 (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 Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853–1923) inherited the drawing in 1915 and gave it on 19 May 1921 to the current owner, the Victoria and Albert Museum (P.19-1921).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 19 May 1921, P.19-1921
- 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. 68, 76 or 90 as 'Rydal Water'
- Prospects, Thresholds, Interiors, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1994, no. 7
- Francis Towne, Tate Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery, 24 June 1997 - 4 January 1998, no. 47
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 128
- Henri Lemaitre, Le Paysage Anglais a l'Aquarelle 1760-1951, Bordas: Paris, 1955, p. 168
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 121
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 112
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
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Comment
Rydal Water is a lake a mile or so north of Ambleside on the road to Keswick. Rydal Hall, the seat of Sir Michael le Fleming (see also 474, 478, 520a), is visible as a tiny white block in the bottom-right corner. “Mr Jones” is unknown, but Robert Woof suggested to Wilcox that he was Mr Jenny of Ipswich, who occasionally occupied Rydal Mount, the house next to Rydal Hall.1 Towne’s viewpoint is at or beyond the southern end of Rydal Park.
Joseph Farington made a similarly stormy view of Rydal Water, with its rays of light breaking through clouds, known in reverse through an engraving of 1785.2