- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- View of Porlock and Porlock Bay
- Date
- 1785/10/04
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey and black inks, grey and grey/brown washes
- Dimensions
-
- image width 308mm,
- image length 497mm
- Support
- laid paper with a vertical crease mark at the centre, watermarked “PORTAL”
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “A View of Porlock Octr 4th 1785 / Somersetshire / from 12 till 2 o clock. Light from the left hand / drawn on the spot by F.Towne”
- in grey ink
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT438
- Description Sources
- Examination; 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 Oxofrd, inherited the drawing in May 1915 (BP196). On 28 January 1937 Judith Merivale sold it to Agnew’s (no.2290) for £30 with FT038, FT039, FT042, FT062, FT287, FT379, where it was bought on 19 April 1938 for £10 by Henry Herbert Harrod (d.1945), who bequeathed it to the present owner, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.1487-1948).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1945, E.1487-1948
- Henry Herbert Harrod (1870 - 1945), London, 19 April 1938, GBP 10
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 28 January 1937, GBP 30 , no.2290
With FT038, FT039, FT042, FT062, FT287, FT379 - Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP196
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP196
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Annual Water Colour Exhibition 1926, The Judge's Lodgings, Winchester, 1926, no. 117
- 65th Annual Exhibition of Water Colour and Pencil Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1938, no. 105
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 128
Other entries in Acland Estates, 1785–86
Holnicote, Somerset, the Seat of Sir Thomas Acland
A View taken at Killerton, the Seat of Sir Thomas Acland, Bt
Footnotes
- 1 Paul Oppé records: notes, ca. 1915.
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Comment
Porlock Bay, on the Somerset coast, was part of the Holnicote estate of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland.
Oppé described three drawings associated with the Acland estates (FT436, FT438, and FT440), including the present drawing, thus: “1785. Porlock etc. might be pre Italy. Pen & wash 3 Aclands are similar (8gns on each) Tones all over in blue grey. not dated. Pretty, comprehensive, in effect.”1
Oppé’s comment notwithstanding, the pen work here is reminiscent of the outline Towne made near Vevay on 20 September 1781 (FT380).