- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A Wharf
- Date
- ca. 1797
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image width 273mm,
- image length 223mm
- Support
- the paper has a horizontal fold mark 83 mm from the bottom and has a blank portion folded away at the top, making its size 369 x 223 mm; it is watermarked “TW 1794”
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT597
- 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 Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 (BP255, A Shed). In 1930 Judith Merivale sold it to Norman Darnton Lupton (1875–1953) of Hyde Crook, Dorchester, Dorset. Agnes Lupton (1874–1950) and Norman Lupton bequeathed it to the current owner, Leeds City Art Gallery (13.202/53).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, 1953, 13.202/53
- Agnes Lupton (1874 - 1950), Dorchester, 1930
- Norman Darnton Lupton (1875 - 1953), Dorchester, 1930
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP255, A Shed
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP255, A Shed
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Bibliography
- Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds Art Calendar, No. 26: Leeds, 1954, p.x.
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 132
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
Comment
This is very probably a view on the Thames in west London made in the summer of 1797. The breadth of the river makes it likely that it is a scene on the Thames, and the buildings on the far bank are handled in the same way as comparable views drawn in 1797 (such as FT595 and FT596). Probably Towne drew this intending to use it as the right-hand foreground element in a wider composition, which would have served as a contrast with a view of the buildings on the far bank (such as FT595). The Courtauld’s Millbank watercolour (FT596) is a view of this type.