- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Entrance to Borrowdale
- Date
- 1786/08
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 97mm,
- image length 156mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist on laid paper
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne / [“1786” partially scratched out]”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No 2 The Entrance into Burrow Dale. / 28” in thick brown ink and, at the bottom-right corner, “28” in very small thin brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT501
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records; 1997 Tate catalogue (image)
Provenance
Presumably bought from the artist by Arthur Harington Champernowne (1768–1819), as his great-great-granddaughter Katharine Iris Paull of Chichester (see Comment at FT602) sold it at Sotheby’s on 30 July 1952, lot 10, for £42 to Agnew’s (no.6965), who bought it on behalf of Captain Vivian Bulkeley-Johnson (1890/1891–1968) of The Mount, Oxfordshire. By 1972 it was the property of The Mount Trust Collection whose administrators sold it at Christie’s on 14 November 1972, lot 94, for £3,990 to Baskett & Day on behalf of Paul Mellon (1907–1999), who gave it to the current owner, the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B1975.4.961; gift to Yale, December 1975).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, December 1975, B1975.4.961
- Mr Paul Mellon (1907 - 1999), London, 14 November 1972, GBP 3990, lot 94
- Christie's, London, London, 14 November 1972, GBP 3990, lot 94
- Captain Vivian Bulkeley-Johnson (1890/91 - 1968), London, 30 July 1952, GBP 42, lot 10
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 30 July 1952, GBP 42, no.6965
Bought on behalf of Captain Vivian Bulkeley-Johnson. - Sotheby's, London, London, 30 July 1952, GBP 42, lot 10
- Katharine Iris Paull, 29 July 1952
- [?] Arthur Harington Champernowne (1768 - 1819)
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
Footnotes
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Comment
Borrowdale is a town and valley of the River Derwent, which runs into Derwent Water near Keswick (see the Comment at FT505). The entrance to Borrowdale is at the southern end, furthest from the lake. Towne’s path is now the B5289 road. Towne’s view is also from much the same spot as Joseph Farington’s, which became very widely known through its engraving.1 Towne does not include the bridge, but the drawing by John White Abbott from his 1791 visit follows Farington more nearly.2 Rather than balancing his composition with a clump of trees as did Farington, at the left edge of his image Towne shows Eagle Crag, which appears in two other works (FT511, FT512). There is a yellow sky effect—sunrise?—in the top-right corner, behind the mountain. The top edge of the sheet has a serrated zigzag line that presumably comes from the scissors Towne used to cut the paper down to size.