- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Elterwater
- Elter Water
- Date
- 1786/08/12
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 156mm,
- image length 477mm
- Support
- two sheets
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “Francis Towne / delt 1786”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Elter Water August 12th 1786 / light from the left hand / F.Towne. 19 / London / Leicester Square / 1790”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT473
- Description Sources
- Christie’s records 1997; Tate catalogue (image)
Provenance
Untraced until sold by “A Gentleman” at Christie’s on 17 November 1981, lot 105, for £4,800 to Spink, where it was bought by the current owner, the Wordsworth Trust (WRD274289).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Wordsworth Trust, Dove Cottage, Grasmere, WRD274289
- Spink & Son, London, London, 17 November 1981, GBP 4800
- Christie's, London, London, 17 November 1981, lot 105
- Exhibition History
- [?] Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 84 as 'Elter Water'
- The Discovery of the Lake District, Dove Cottage, 1982, no. 138
- English Watercolour Drawings Annual Exhibition 1982, Spink, 1982, no. 11
- The Discovery of the Lake District, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1984, no. 87
- Francis Towne, Tate Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery, 24 June 1997 - 4 January 1998, no. 51
- Bibliography
- Robert Upstone, Sketchbooks of the Romantics, Tiger Books International: London, 1993, pp. 140-141
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
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
Elterwater is a small lake two miles west of Ambleside, a short walk from Skelwith Bridge. Towne’s viewpoint looks west to the Lingmoor Fells and, in the right corner, the Langdale Pikes. The River Brathay flows from the lake in the foreground, down to Skelwith Bridge and into Lake Windermere. Towne has created more foreground incident than in the actual scene, has raised the height of the Langdale Pikes, and has rearranged the mountains in the left far distance.
In addition to Towne’s recto inscription a later (nineteenth-century?) hand has added “Elter Water” bottom left.