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Lot Essay
This drawing is a product of Towne's Welsh tour in the summer of 1777. He seems to have used a sketchbook with a page size of about 11 x 19 in., sometimes, as in the present example, adding extra sheets to give additional drawing space (compare a view of the Lake of Bala, dated 27 June 1777, in the City Art Gallery, Birmingham). The drawings made on this tour were numbered in a series up to 54, and, as Opp points out, would have been 'kept by the artist and shown to patrons in the hope of commissions for copies' (op.cit., p. 106).
At Francis Towne's death in 1816 the majority of his drawings and watercolours - excepting the series of Roman views presented to the British Museum - were inherited by James White, the artist's close friend, sometime travelling companion, and uncle of his most distinguished pupil James White Abbott. On James White's death in 1825 the collection passed, under the terms of Towne's will, to John Herman Merivale (1779-1844). The collection remained unknown at the Merivale home, Barton Place, throughout the 19th Century. In 1915, a gradual dispersal began, initially among the family, (particularly to Miss J. Merivale, Mr. R. Merivale, Mrs. Solly, MIss E. Buckingham and the Rev. M.D. Buckingham). Stimulated by Opp's article in 1920, a wider circle of collectors took an ever increasing interest in Towne's work. Sir William Worsley, who made his first acquisition in 1944, a view of Shaugh, was prominent among them, and by 1960 had formed a notable collection.
At Francis Towne's death in 1816 the majority of his drawings and watercolours - excepting the series of Roman views presented to the British Museum - were inherited by James White, the artist's close friend, sometime travelling companion, and uncle of his most distinguished pupil James White Abbott. On James White's death in 1825 the collection passed, under the terms of Towne's will, to John Herman Merivale (1779-1844). The collection remained unknown at the Merivale home, Barton Place, throughout the 19th Century. In 1915, a gradual dispersal began, initially among the family, (particularly to Miss J. Merivale, Mr. R. Merivale, Mrs. Solly, MIss E. Buckingham and the Rev. M.D. Buckingham). Stimulated by Opp's article in 1920, a wider circle of collectors took an ever increasing interest in Towne's work. Sir William Worsley, who made his first acquisition in 1944, a view of Shaugh, was prominent among them, and by 1960 had formed a notable collection.