FRANCIS TOWNE (BRITISH 1739-1816)
IN PEAMORE PARK
Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000
Auction: 19 March 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
signed and dated 'Fr. Towne delt./1778' lower left, pencil, pen and grey ink and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
28cm x 43.5cm (11in x 17in)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the Artist to James White of Exeter (1744-1825)
His bequest to John Herman Merivale (1779-1844)
By descent from the above to the Misses Maria Sophia and Judith Ann Merivale, by 1915
Sold by the above to Catherine Lambert, October 1932 (£25)
By descent from the above to the previous owners
Their sale, Christie's London, Old Master & British Drawings, 5 July 2016, lot 87
Footnote
Exhibited: 20 Lower Brook Street. Grosvenor Square, London, Exhibition of Original Drawings by Francis Towne, 1805, no. 10 (as ‘A Study of a tree blown down in Peamore Park’)
Burlington Fine Arts Club, London,. A Collection of Pictures, Drawings, Furniture and Works of Art of the Empire and Regency Period: Select Examples of Romano-British Art, 1929, no. 12
Literature: Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society, VIII, London,1920, pp. 104-05
Henri Lemaitre, Le paysage anglais à l'aquarelle 1760-1851, Bordas, Paris, 1955, p. 148
Adrian Bury, Francis Towne, Lone Star of Watercolour Painting, Charles Skilton, London, 1962, p. 118
Richard Stephens, A Catalogue Raisonné of Francis Towne (1739-1816), online edition, no. 144 (accessed 29 January 2025)
As per Christie's cataloguing of 2016, this work is also said to be inscribed 'In Peamore Park on the verso of the original mount and with inscription '178 B.P.' verso in the hand of Paul Oppé, to be laid down onto the original mount and to be on a double sketchbook page'.