- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Donkey near Exminster
- Date
- ca. 1780 - 1790
- Medium
- Pen and ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 127mm,
- image length 197mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “This Sketched near Exminster Devonshire Francis Towne.”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT640
- Description Sources
- 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 (BP220) and it appears to have remained unsold until Judith Merivale’s death. On 28 June 1948 Gilbert Davis (1899–1983) bought it from Squire Gallery, then it was acquired by the present owner, the Huntingdon Library, San Marino (59.55.1268).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Huntington Library, San Marino, California, San Marino, 59.55.1268
- Gilbert Davis (1899 - 1983), 28 June 1948
- Squire Gallery, London, June 1948
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP220
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP220
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Three Exeter Artists of the Eighteenth Century: Francis Hayman RA, Francis Towne, John White Abbott, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 1951, no. 28
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 139
Other entries in Exeter and the Exe, 1791–99
Francis Towne
Scene in the City of Exeter between the Quaygate and Westgate
Scene in the City of Exeter between the Quaygate and Westgate
Francis Towne
A Lane in the Village of Heavitree, near Exeter
A Lane in the Village of Heavitree, near Exeter
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Comment
Exminster is a town towards the top of the Exe estuary roughly halfway between Exeter and Powderham. Judging by the rapidly drawn foliage, this appears to be of a similar date to another animal study, FT810, perhaps the late 1780s or 1790s. Towne has included a large eye lurking in the undergrowth, an instance of anamorphic imagery that appears occasionally in his work (see also FT205 and FT238). Its meaning is unclear, but perhaps the image as a whole carries a moralising proverbial message in the tradition of illustrated emblem books.