Francis Towne

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Francis Towne
1740?-1816
Rydal Cragg, Loffrigg
1786
Pen and brown ink, watercolor, over some graphite, on two sheets of paper pasted together vertically.
6 1/8 x 18 1/2 inches (156 x 469 mm)
Purchased as the gift of Viscount Astor.
1974.70

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Notes: 

Watermark: none.
This drawing comes from the dismembered sketchbook of Towne's 1786 tour in the Lake District with his friends John Merivale and James White. Another sheet from the sketchbook is at the Yale Center for British Art.
The sketchbook was once owned by Judith Ann Merivale (1860-1945) of Oxford, who was the daughter of Towne's residuary legatee, J. H. Merivale.

Inscription: 

Inscribed by the artist variously on verso: at top in pen and brown ink, "No 7"; in pen and brown ink over graphite, "B Rydal Cragg or[?]"; in graphite, "Loffrigg".

Provenance: 
John Merivale, friend of the artist; his daughter Judith Ann Merivale (1860-1945), Oxford; purchased by Squire Gallery, London, 1945; H.B. Milling (d. 1954); possibly by descent to Mrs. William Spooner; Stephen Somerville, London.
Associated names: 

Merivale, John Herman, 1779-1844, former owner.
Merivale, Judith Ann, 1860-1945, former owner.
Milling, H. B., d. 1954, former owner.
Spooner, William, Mrs., former owner.
Somerville, Stephen, former owner.
Astor, William Waldorf, 1951- donor.

Bibliography: 

Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Seventeenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1972-1974. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1976, p. 183.
Adrian Bury, Francis Towne, London, 1962, 149.

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