- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Near Rydal Hall
- Date
- 1786/08/16
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, grey wash
- Dimensions
-
- image width 235mm,
- image length 156mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “No.21 Near Rydal Hall light from the left hand / August 16th. 1786 F.Towne”
- in ink (over pencil?), except “Near” and “light from the left hand” in pencil only
- Part of
-
- Partially-disbound sketchbook sold by Judith Merivale to H. B. Milling of Squire Gallery
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT478
- Description Sources
- Christie's records (image); Paul Opp
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 within a partially disbound sketchbook containing FT455, FT462, FT470, FT471, FT472, FT475, FT476, FT477, FT478, FT480, FT494, FT495, FT496. In February 1945 Judith Merivale sold the book to H. B. Milling of Squire Gallery for £25. This is presumably where John Boynton Priestley (1894–1984) bought it, as his ownership of “Cascade at Rydall Hall” was confirmed in an insurance document dated 23 August 1949, valued at £120. On 5 November 1974 Colnaghi’s sold this drawing to Agnew’s (no.3693), who sold it on 28 January 1975. It was sold at Christie’s on 12 November 1991, lot 88, for £4,000 to Leger Galleries, where it was on sale in 1992, whereafter it is untraced.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
- Leger Galleries, London, 12 November 1991, GBP 4000
- Christie's, London, London, 12 November 1991
lot 88 - Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 5 November 1974, no.3693
- P&D Colnaghi & Co, London, London, 5 November 1974
- John Boynton Priestley (1894 - 1984)
Ownership of 'Cascade at Rydall Hall' was confirmed in an insurance document dated 23 August 1949, valued at £120 - Horace Bernard Milling (1898 - 1954), London, February 1945, GBP 25
Sold within a partially-disbound sketchbook containing FT455, FT462, FT470, FT471, FT472, FT475, FT476, FT477, FT480, FT494, FT495, FT496 - Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- [?] 102nd Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1975
- British Landscape Painting, Leger Galleries, 1992, no. 26
- Bibliography
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 122
Other entries in Lake District, 1786
A View at Ambleside, near Sir Michael Fleming’s on the Road to Keswick
A View taken at Ambleside at the Head of Lake Windermere
Looking from Ambleside across Lake Windermere
A View near the Turnpike on the Way from Low Wood to Ambleside
Looking to the Mountains over the Head of Buttermere
A View at Low Wood, looking across the Head of Lake Windermere
Raven Crag and Part of Thirlmere
Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum
St John’s in the Vale, looking towards Grasmere
St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
A View in St John’s in the Vale looking towards Keswick
On the Side of Lake Windermere, near the Turnpike
A View of Derwent Water looking towards Lodore Falls
A View from the Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside
At Ambleside coming from the Cascade in the Groves
A View of Rydal Water looking towards Rydal Hall
Elter Force, near Ambleside
National Gallery National Gallery of Victoria
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Comment
This is a small cascade near Rydal Hall (see FT463, FT474) but not the “upper falls”. Judging by the description in Christie’s 1991 catalogue, the pencil inscriptions on this drawing may have been erased. In the sketchbook this drawing was placed after an outline of tree trunks and a cottage (FT476) and before another outline of rocks and trees (FT477).