Although this drawing is undated, it is clearly from the group made in the summer of 1797 and quite possibly on 5 July, the date of another Millbank sketch (FT595). About this time Millbank provided a site for a number of prominent artists to make atmospheric nature studies, and especially given his unusual inscription of the weather, Towne was no doubt aware of the area’s developing currency among artists. Thomas Girtin’s White House at Chelsea (Tate) of 1800 depicts much the same view as Towne, and Turner’s exhibit of 1797 (Tate) may well have prompted Towne to make the drawing catalogued here. Towne’s viewpoint is the same as an etching published in 1797 by John Thomas Smith (British Museum 1880,1113.2493).

The reviewer A. C. Sewter wrote of the 1940 Agnew’s exhibiton: “Agnew’s exhibition contains a small roomful of older English watercolours, as well as the modern works, and a delightful drawing by Francis Towne of ‘The Thames at Millbank’ (about 1778) possesses very considerable documentary interest.”¹ This or another ex cat. work from the Fine Art Society must have been “Francis Towne’s large, but rather slight, sketch of Millbank”, noted by The Times reviewer of the society’s display of London views in February 1942.² Only one Millbank view is recorded as having been sold by Agnew’s (FT595), which means that this work cannot have been sold there. Perhaps it was left unsold after 1942 and moved instead to the Fine Art Society by 1942, where its inclusion within a focused display of London views may have made its owner feel it had a better chance of sale.