- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Near Glarus
- Date
- ca. 1781/09/01
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image width 288mm,
- image length 467mm
- Support
- paper with stitching marks along the top edge
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “No.24. Near Glaris, light from the right hand in the evening / In the Canton of Glaris near the town of Glaris evening light from the right hand Septr. 1st. 1781”
- the first line in pen, the second in pencil
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT366
- 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 grand daughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 (BP69). On 24 May 1921 they sold it to Agnew’s (no.9950) for £12 for onward sale the same day (for £350 with FT072, FT074, FT086, FT108, FT111, FT237, FT260, FT469, FT504) to the present owner, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Inv. 96'21).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 24 May 1921, GBP 350, Inv. 96'21
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 24 May 1921, GBP 12, no.9950
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP69
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP69
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Watercolours from the Birmingham Art Gallery, Worthing Art Gallery, 1960, no. 17
- unidentified exhibition, Fermoy Art Gallery, 1964
- Peintures et Aquarelles 1700-1900 du Musee de Birmingham, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, 1966, no. 118
- Two Centuries of English Painting, National Gallery, Prague; National Slovak Gallery, Bratislava, 1969, no. 137
- British Watercolours 1760-1930 from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1980, no. 22
- Wordsworth and the Alps, Wordsworth Trust, 1990
- British Watercolours from Birmingham, Tokyo and tour, 1991, no. 31
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 135
Other entries in C&I Honig Series: Northern Italy and Switzerland, August and September 1781
“Lago Torfi”, near Lugano
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
Waterfall between Chiavenna and Mount Splugen
In the Valley of the Grisons looking on Tusis
Footnotes
- 1 Maggi & Navone 2003.
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Comment
This drawing depicts the bridge on the Linth at Netstal, using the same viewpoint as in a picture by Heinrich Thomann.1 John “Warwick” Smith’s treatment of the mid-1780s is dated 1785 (National Trust, Wallington Hall).