- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Snowdon
- Looking North from Lower Slopes of Snowdon
- Date
- 1775
- Medium
- Oil on (?)wood
- Dimensions
-
- image width 447mm,
- image length 563mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne. 1775”
- Object Type
- Oil painting
-
- Versions
- Snowdon
- Catalogue Number
- FT142
- Description Sources
- Sotheby’s records; Paul Mellon Centre (image)
Provenance
Untraced until 8 November 1957, when it was purchased by Agnew’s (no.2205) from the Leonard Koetser Gallery, Duke Street. On 14 August 1958 Arthur Watkins bought it from Agnew’s and Mrs J. Watkins sold it at Sotheby’s on 20 March 1974, lot 7, for £400 to G. Young. It was offered again at Sotheby’s on 26 March 1975, lot 81, and was sold at Bonham’s Knightsbridge on 29 October 2014, lot 261.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection, 29 October 2014
- Bonham's, London, 29 October 2014, lot 261
- Private Collection, 26 March 1975
- Sotheby's, London, London, 26 March 1975
lot 81 - G. Young, 20 March 1974, GBP 400
- Sotheby's, London, London, 20 March 1974, lot 7
Sold by Mrs J. Watkins - Arthur Watkins, 14 August 1958
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 8 November 1957, no.2205
- Leonard Koetser Gallery, London, 1957
Other entries in Oil Paintings, 1773–80
Francis Towne
Church of St Petroc, Egloshayle, near Wadebridge, Cornwall
Church of St Petroc, Egloshayle, near Wadebridge, Cornwall
Francis Towne
Bridge over the River Camel at Wadebridge, Cornwall
Bridge over the River Camel at Wadebridge, Cornwall
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Comment
This picture was called Looking North from the Lower Slopes of Snowdon in 1957 and 1974, presumably on the basis of an old label or inscription. The 1775 date is difficult to accept, though beyond serious doubt—the “5” is the clearest of the four digits in fact. This means that the composition (and the later version dated 1778) cannot be based on a sketch Towne made on his 1777 tour of Wales. Given Towne’s duplication of the picture, even after his visit to Wales the previous year, it seems unlikely that this is based on another artist’s on-the-spot sketch or the study of a client. We must take seriously, then, the idea that Towne visited North Wales twice in the 1770s.
Another version of the picture catalogued here is dated 1778 (FT141). There is nothing stylistically to distinguish the dates of the two pictures.