Francis Towne
Lake Albano

ArtistBritish, 1739–1816
CultureBritish
Titles
  • Lake Albano
Date1781
Place depictedItaly
MediumPen and gray ink and grayish-brown wash over graphite on laid paper
DimensionsSheet: 12 5/8 × 18 1/2 in. (32.1 × 47 cm)
Credit LineThe Stuart Collection, museum purchase funded by Francita Stuart Koelsch Ulmer in honor of Mary Hale Lovett McLean
Object number2017.367
Not on view

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ProvenanceFrancis Towne; James White (1744-1825), Exeter, by bequest from the above in 1816; John Herman Merivale (1779-1844), Barton Place, Exeter, by reversion as residuary legatee on White’s death in 1825; Maria Sophia Merivale (1853-1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860-1945), grand-daughters of the above, Oxford, by descent May 1915, (Barton Place inventory no. 23); [Squire Gallery, acquired from Judith Ann Merivale, 1933 for £6 10s]; Leonard G Duke, acquired from the above, February 1934, for 16 ½ gns (D105); Nigel Warren QC (1912-67), acquired from the above, November 1955, £200; and by descent to 2002; Private collection, USA, 2015; [Lowell Libson, Ltd.], 2015-2017; sold to MFAH, 2017
Exhibition HistoryRoyal Albert Memorial Museum, Three Exeter Artists of the Eighteenth Century, exh. cat., Exeter, Festival of Britain, 1951, no. 188.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Verso: Signed, inscribed, dated and numbered in brown ink, upper right: No 2 Lake of Albano/Evening Sun behind the trees on the left/hand / July the 10th, 1781 / Francis Towne’

Verso: Inscribed in brown ink, left bottom edge: A copy of this painted on canvas [sic] the same size for James Curtis Esq. 1784

Verso: Watermark, center: J WHATMAN


Catalogue raisonnéStephens, Richard. A Catalogue Raisonné of Francis Towne (1739-1816). London: Paul Mellon Centre, 2016 (online catalogue).

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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