- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View near Hornsey
- Date
- 1786
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 146mm,
- image length 184mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne / 1786[?]”
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “A View near Hornsey”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT452
- Description Sources
- Christie’s records (image); Sotheby’s records
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). On 2 March 1936 she sold it to Agnew’s (no.1855) for £6, and they sold it (on 29 February 1936 according to Agnew’s) for £9 9s. to Miss N. Butler, who sold it back to Agnew’s (no.6038) on 7 October 1947 for £10. On 11 October 1949 Agnew’s sold it for £28 10s. to Gilbert Davis (1899–1983), who sold it at Sotheby’s on 19 May 1954, lot 39, for £20 to Agnew’s (no.7509), who sold it to Lieutenant Commander George Gosselin Marten of Crichel, Wimborne (d.1997). It was sold by a relative at Christie’s on 3 March 1970, lot 102, for £441, and at Christie’s South Kensington on 28 January 2015, lot 758.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection, 28 January 2015, GBP 8125
- Christie's, London, London, 25 January 2015, lot 758
- Private Collection, 3 March 1970, GBP 441
- Christie's, London, London, 3 March 1970, lot 102
- F. W. Marten
- Lieutenant Commander George Gosselin Marten ( - 1997), Crichel, Wimborne
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 19 May 1954, GBP 20, no.7509
- Sotheby's, London, London, 19 May 1954, lot 39
- Gilbert Davis (1899 - 1983), 11 October 1949, GBP 28.10s
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 11 October 1947, GBP 10, no.6038
- Miss N. Butler, 29 February 1936, GBP 9.9s
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 2 March 1936, GBP 6, no.1855
- 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
Other entries in London, Hampshire and Surrey, ca. 1782-1801
A View in Hyde Park looking towards the Serpentine River
Footnotes
- 1 Paul Oppé records.
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Comment
Towne’s connections with Hornsey, a village north of London, are unknown. It is just possible, although unlikely, that there are two drawings of Hornsey, dated 1783 and 1786, as the date given at both exhibitions was 1783. Examination of the photograph suggests the date is probably 1786, but the 1954 Sotheby’s catalogue, based on a direct examination of the sheet, stated that it was “indistinctly dated”. Oppé saw the drawing in Emily Buckingham’s collection and dated it to 1786.1 The style is similar to Towne’s 1787 studies at Chudleigh Rocks.