- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Oakhampton Castle
- Date
- 1794
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 237mm,
- image length 346mm
- Support
- paper has a crease mark down the centre
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “Francis Towne delt. 1794”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Okehampton Castle in the County of Devon / drawn by Francis Towne 1794.”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (104/1928)
- Catalogue Number
- FT580
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), on whose death it reverted to Towne’s residuary legatee John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) and his successors. Merivale’s granddaughter Emily Harriet Buckingham (b.1853) inherited it in May 1915, and in 1928 it was given by three of her sisters Henrietta Maria Turner (b.1861), Frances Ann Laura Solly (b.1858), and Mary Ann Loveband (b.1865) to its present owner, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter (104/1928).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter, 1928, 104/1928
- Mary Ann Loveband (1865 - alive in 1951), 1927
- Frances Ann Laura Solly (1858 - alive in 1932), 1927
- Henrietta Maria Turner, 1927
- Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853 - 1923), May 1915
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Loan Exhibition: English Watercolours and Drawings from Local Collections, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 1949, no. 12
- Three Exeter Artists of the Eighteenth Century: Francis Hayman RA, Francis Towne, John White Abbott, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 1951, no. 79
- Paintings and Drawings by Francis Towne and John White Abbott in the collection of Exeter Museums and Art Gallery, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, 1971, no. 8
- Francis Towne & John White Abbott: Paintings and Watercolours from the Exeter Museums and Art Gallery, Marble Hill House, 1973, no. 8
- Bibliography
- Jane C. Baker, Catalogue of Oil Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculpture, Exeter Museums: Exeter, 1978, p. 118
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, pp. 122-123
Other entries in Studio Watercolours, 1783–1800
Francis Towne
Much Wenlock, Shropshire, with the Ruins of the Priory Church
Much Wenlock, Shropshire, with the Ruins of the Priory Church
Francis Towne
The Wrekin, on the Road between Much Wenlock and Shrewsbury
The Wrekin, on the Road between Much Wenlock and Shrewsbury
Francis Towne
A View going from the Head of Lake Como over Mount Splugen
A View going from the Head of Lake Como over Mount Splugen
Francis Towne
The Campagna near Rome looking towards the Sabine Mountains
The Campagna near Rome looking towards the Sabine Mountains
Francis Towne
A View of Loreto with Part of the Adriatic Sea
A View of Loreto with Part of the Adriatic Sea
Francis Towne
A View near the Arco Scuro Looking towards the Villa Medici
A View near the Arco Scuro Looking towards the Villa Medici
Francis Towne
An Evening View from Mount Palatine looking towards Mount Aventine
An Evening View from Mount Palatine looking towards Mount Aventine
Francis Towne
A View on the Banks of the Tiber near Monte Milvio
A View on the Banks of the Tiber near Monte Milvio
Francis Towne
A View of the Temple of Venus looking towards the Island of Nisida
A View of the Temple of Venus looking towards the Island of Nisida
Francis Towne
Chateau de Glerolles, near Vevey on Lake Geneva
Chateau de Glerolles, near Vevey on Lake Geneva
Francis Towne
Abbey Valley Crucis, near Llangollen on the River Dee, North Wales
Abbey Valley Crucis, near Llangollen on the River Dee, North Wales
Francis Towne
A View on the Banks of the Dee above Llangollen
A View on the Banks of the Dee above Llangollen
Francis Towne
A View of the Bay of Naples with the Island of Capri
A View of the Bay of Naples with the Island of Capri
Footnotes
- 1 Oppé 1920, p.122.
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Comment
This is a highly worked up drawing, featuring the heavy colouring of the kind seen on drawings of Tivoli (FT252, FT253, FT269), two of which were mounted on paper watermarked with the year “1794”. The group of trees at the left is similar to the group in an undated Lidford drawing (FT566), which, however, is not so highly finished as this.
Oppé’s mention of this drawing in the 1920 Walpole article implies that this is a later studio watercolour based on an on-the-spot sketch; however, it is not clear on what basis he came to that conclusion. Either it “belongs to the same group” as the Acland commissions of 1788 to 1790 (FT548 to FT556), in the sense that it was commissioned by the Aclands around the same time, or else—like the Acland group—it is among the “water-colour drawings which are known to have been made on commission or are dated much later than the sketches . . . For several of these the original sketches are in the Barton Place portfolios.”1 There is now no evidence linking this drawing to the Aclands, and it is possible that Oppé was simply making a judgment based on the drawing style.
Louisa Drury made a copy of this sketch (FT580a).