- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Head of Lake Geneva
- Date
- 1781/09/13
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, grey and blue washes
- Dimensions
-
- image width 260mm,
- image length 368mm
- Support
- stitch marks evident at top edge of paper
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “No.2 / Francis Towne”
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT375
- Description Sources
- Sotheby's records; Wilcox 1997 (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) inherited the drawing in May 1915 (BP80), and in 1930 Judith Merivale sold it to Norman Darnton Lupton (1875–1953) of Hyde Crook, Dorchester, Dorset, for £27 10s. with five other drawings (FT320, FT371, FT436, FT544, FT597). By 1962 the drawing was in the possession of Iolo Anuerin Williams (1890–1962), whose family sold it at Sotheby’s on 28 October 1971, lot 181, for £1,500 where it was bought by the Manning Gallery. It was in a “private collection” in 1997.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection
- Manning Gallery, 28 October 1971, GBP 1500
- Sotheby's, London, London, 28 October 1971, lot 181
- Iolo Anuerin Williams (1890 - 1962), 1962
- Agnes Lupton (1874 - 1950), Dorchester, 1930
- Norman Darnton Lupton (1875 - 1953), Dorchester, 1930
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP80
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP80
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- 20th Anniversary Exhibition: English Drawings from Isaac Oliver to Paul Nash, Manning Gallery, 1972, no. 15
- Francis Towne, Tate Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery, 24 June 1997 - 4 January 1998, no. 41
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 149
Other entries in Lake Geneva and Chamonix series, September 1781
Head of Lake Geneva, looking towards Montreux and the Chateau Chillon
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
A View taken above Lausanne looking over Lake Geneva
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
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Comment
Figure 1.
Francis Towne, FT374, FT375 and FT376 assembled together, 1781
This is the middle portion of Towne’s panoramic view of Lake Geneva (see the Comment at FT374).
It is odd that Norman Lupton, who owned the drawing from 1930, did not hang on to it and give it to Leeds City Art Gallery, since he owned and bequeathed to them the other two parts of the panorama.