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Francis Towne, 1740–1816, British, View of Lake Coniston, Lancashire, 1786

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Creator:

Francis Towne, 1740–1816

Title:

View of Lake Coniston, Lancashire

Date:

1786

Medium:

Watercolor and pen and brown ink on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper

Dimensions:

Mount: 12 3/4 × 24 7/8 inches (32.4 × 63.2 cm), Contemporary drawn border: 8 3/8 × 20 7/8 inches (21.3 × 53 cm), Sheet: 6 1/8 × 18 5/8 inches (15.6 × 47.3 cm)

Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in brown ink, lower left: "F. Towne | delt 1786"; Inscribed in brown ink, verso, upper center: "No 25 A View of the Lake of Coniston in Lancashire drawn on the Spot | by Francis Towne August 15th 1786"

Watermark: Fleur-de-lis (similar to Heawood 1849 with unidentified CK).

Signed and dated in brown ink, lower left: "F. Towne | delt 1786"

Credit Line:

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Copyright Status:

Public Domain

Accession Number:

B1977.14.6293

Classification:

Drawings & Watercolors

Collection:

Prints and Drawings

Subject Terms:

Associated Places:

Coniston Water

Access:

Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.

Link:

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5089

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Forgotten for over a century, Francis Towne's watercolors were rediscovered in the early twentieth century and recognized as some of the finest drawings of the eighteenth century. Towne's technique of using watercolor within carefully penned outlines was entirely conventional, but his ability to abstract views into strikingly simplified patterns gives his work a uniquely modern feel. This view of Lake Coniston was made in 1786 on a tour of the Lake District, the panoramic format requiring two pages of a sketchbook that Towne filled and subsequently dismantled. In this case the join in the middle has been left prominently to indicate that this was a view "drawn on the spot," as Towne liked to put it.

Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Francis Towne (Leeds Art Gallery, 1997-10-02 - 1998-01-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Francis Towne (Tate Britain, 1997-06-24 - 1997-09-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Fairest Isle - The Appreciation of British Scenery 1750-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1989-04-12 - 1989-06-25) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Oil on Water - Oil Sketches by British Watercolorists (Yale Center for British Art, 1986-08-26 - 1986-11-09) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Presences of Nature - British Landscape 1780-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-10-20 - 1983-02-27) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Malcolm Cormack, Oil on water, oil sketches by British watercolorists , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1986, p. 54, fig. 60, ND467 C67 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Louis Hawes, Presences of Nature : British Landscape, 1780-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1982, pp. 117-8, no. I.9, pl. 93, ND1354.4 H38 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Duncan Robinson, Fairest isle : the appreciation of British scenery, 1750-1850, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1989, p. 7 and inside cover, no. 43, ND1354.4 F35 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing, London, 1997, pp. 117-118, no. 52, NJ18 T695 W55 1997 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 30-32 (detail pp. 31-32), no. 10, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

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