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Landscape with rocks - Roche Rock, Cornwall

Maker

(artist)
1739-1816

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1796

Medium

graphite, pen and ink (brown and grey), watercolour on laid paper, laid down on artist's mount; strong vertical fold and edges of paper suggest this was an opening from a sketchbook

Dimensions

Height: 23.6 cm
Width: 36.4 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.1758

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Francis Towne is known to have practised his drawing skills by copying prints; this may have influenced the patterns of hatcing used here. Towne spent most of his life supported by a circle of west country patrons who were unconcerned that, by this date, Towne's style had been made old-fashioned by developments in the metropolis. Some critics even saw this as a positive virtue, describing Towne's work as 'chaste' and 'reticent' in contast to the flashy new effects produced by fashionable London artists such as Richard Westall.

Provenance

bequeathed by the artist to John White, Exeter, 1816; reverted to John Herman Merivale (1779-1844); by descent to his granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale, Oxford (1853-1928) and Judith Ann Merivale, Oxford (1860-1945), 1915; sold by the latter to Squire Gallery (London), February 1938, for £4.14.4; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Three Exeter artists of the eighteenth century : Francis Hayman, Francis Towne, John White Abbott. Catalogue of loan exhibition by arrangement with the Arts Council of Great Britain, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, 08/05/1951-22/09/1951

Old Masters from the Witt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 01/01/1943-01/05/1943

Literature

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 52

Festival of Britain 1951. Loan Exhibition. Three Exeter Artists of the Eighteenth Century. Francis Hayman, R.A., Francis Towne, John White Abbott, Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter, 1951
no. 58

Stephens, Richard, A Catalogue Raisonné of The Works of Francis Towne, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, http://francistowne.ac.uk/collection/home
no. FT587
Illus. repr.

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: centre (only visible in raking light due to mount): a crowned shield above "L V GERREVINK" (probably matches one of the marks from Heawood 2741-2745 - all British marks, dated 1755-1788).

Inscription: F. Towne / delt. 1796 //

Inscription: A View of part of Roch Rock, / in the County of Cornwall / Drawn by Francis Towne. / Mounted 1796, / in Exeter. // [the latter two lines also appear on D.2019.ST.11].

Inscription: 110 13 P [?]

Inscription: 24 x 18 / [...] 2 //

Collector's mark: collector's mark of Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b)

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