- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Ullswater from Gowbarrow Park
- Ulswater
- Ulswater, near Patterdale
- Date
- 1786
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey and brown inks, watercolour, scratching out
- Dimensions
-
- image width 135mm,
- image length 155mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “No37 F.Towne delt 1786”
- in dark brown ink
- Inscription
-
- verso
- on the mount: "No 37 / On the Lake of Ullswater going down to it / from Gobarrow Park drawn on the / spot by Francis Towne 1786"
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT493
- Description Sources
- Examination; Bridgeman Art Library (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 bequeathed it to her sister Frances Ann Laura Solly (b.1858). Later it was owned by Agnes Lupton (1874–1950) and Norman Darnton Lupton (1875–1953) of Hyde Crook, Dorchester, Dorset, who bequeathed it to the current owner, Leeds City Art Gallery (13.198/53).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, 1953, 13.198/53
- Norman Darnton Lupton (1875 - 1953), Dorchester
- Agnes Lupton (1874 - 1950), Dorchester
- Frances Ann Laura Solly (1858 - alive in 1932), 1923
- 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. 53, 54 or 55, as 'Ulswater', or 'Ulswater, near Patterdale'
- The Lupton Collection, Leeds City Art Gallery, 1972, no. 73
- The Discovery of the Lake District, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1984, no. 90
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 132
- Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds Art Calendar, No. 26: Leeds, 1954, p. 12
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
- 1 After Joseph Farington, Ullswater from Gobarrow Park, ca. 1785 (Wordsworth Trust).
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Comment
This is a view looking south-west down Ullswater, a lake in the north east part of the Lake District, near Penrith. Gowbarrow Park is on the northern side of Ullswater near its western end. The brown mountain to the left of this drawing is Place Fell.
Towne added colour to this drawing as or after he mounted it, as some of the colour has strayed onto the mount. It is evidently a drawing from a sketchbook that Towne has cut down in size, losing an area of paper of ca. 100 x 155 mm.
An engraving of Joseph Farington’s view of Ullswater from Gowbarrow Park was published in 1785.1 All the basic landscape features exist in both views but have been deployed quite differently to create quite different effects. Where Towne’s sublime Ullswater is a short body of water edged with crowding rocks, somewhat like a north Italian lake, Farington’s beautiful Ullswater is a lengthy sea of calm—the effect Towne was seeking in FT526.