- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Skelwith Force and Lingmoor Fell
- Date
- 1786/08
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 267mm,
- image length 375mm
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT523
- 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. Quite feasibly it is BP156, “all Italian paper none [i.e. no date, no number]”, sold to Squire Gallery in February 1935 for £14. By June 1935 it was on sale at the Fine Art Society (which often snapped up the Squire Gallery’s Merivale acquisitions), where on 2 August 1938 it was purchased for £25 by James Leslie Wright of Warwick (1862–1954), who bequeathed it to the current owner, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (P.399, 53), although under the terms of his bequest the drawing remained in the custody of his family. The museum’s records state that the drawing has a Merivale provenance.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1954, P.399, 53
- James Leslie Wright (1862 - 1953), Warwick, 2 August 1938, GBP 25
- The Fine Art Society, London, London, June 1935
- Squire Gallery, London, 1935, GBP 14
- 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
- An Exhibition of Early English Water-Colour Drawings, Fine Art Society, 1935, no. 44 as 'Mountain Scene Ex Merivale'
- Exhibition of Early English Water-colours from the Collection of J.Leslie Wright Esq. and Walter Turner Esq., City Art Gallery, 1938, no. 37
- Exhibition of Masters of British Water-Colour (17th-19th Centuries) The J. Leslie Wright Collection, Royal Academy, 1949, no. 137
- Three Exeter Artists of the Eighteenth Century: Francis Hayman RA, Francis Towne, John White Abbott, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 1951, no. 51
Other entries in Lake District, 1786
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
Elter Force, near Ambleside
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
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Comment
This is a view of Skelwith Force, with the peak of Lingmoor Fell showing through the trees at centre right.
Towne’s fingerprint is visible at the bottom-right corner of the sheet.