- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View from Low Wood
- A View from Low-Wood
- Windermere at Sunset
- Date
- 1786/08/16
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour, on laid paper with a partial watermark with lettering indistinctly visible at the left edge of the sheet (stitch marks evident also)
- Dimensions
-
- image width 159mm,
- image length 237mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist, on laid paper
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F. Towne. delt.1786 No.29”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- top left, “No 29”; top right, “taken after the sun was d[own?—the mount has been cut, removing part of this inscription] / on the right hand side”; top centre, “A View taken from Low Wood, looking over the Lake of Windermere in Westmoreland, / to the mountains at the head of Coniston Lake. / drawn by Francis Towne August 16th, 1786 / London/ Leicester Square/ July 7th 1791.”
- in brown ink (a nineteenth- or early twentieth-century copy of the inscription is preserved in Yale’s file)
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT485
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
Provenance
Presumably acquired 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, 30th July 1952, lot 12, for £120 to Agnew’s (no.6967), who bought it on behalf of Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973). On 2 October 1969 Worsley sold it back to Agnew’s (no.9668) with 380, where it was bought on 12 January 1970 by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), who gave it to the present owner, the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B1975.4.1759; gift to Yale, December 1975).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, December 1975, B1975.4.1759
- Mr Paul Mellon (1907 - 1999), 12 January 1970
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 2 October 1969, no.9668
Acquired with FT380 - Sir William Worsley (1890 - 1973), 30 July 1952
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 30 July 1952, GBP 120, no.6967
Acquired on behalf of Sir William Worsley Bt - Sotheby's, London, London, 30 July 1952
lot 12 - Katharine Iris Paull, Chichester
- Arthur Harington Champernowne (1768 - 1819), 1786
- Exhibition History
- Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 69 or 70, as 'A View from Low-Wood'
- 97th Annual Exhibition of Water-Colours and Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1970, no. 37, ex cat
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 95, 143
- Sir William Worsley, Early English Water-Colours at Hovingham Hall: 1963, p. 13
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
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Comment
This is a view at Low Wood looking over Windermere. The trees in the right mid-ground are on a natural promontory called Holme Crag, from which Towne drew FT468. Towne is here about five minutes from the Low Wood Inn. On the horizon is the Old Man of Coniston and, to its left, a peak that Towne has made artificially prominent to provide interest and balance to the left portion of the composition.