FRANCIS TOWNE (MIDDLESEX 1739-1816 LONDON) - photo 1
FRANCIS TOWNE (MIDDLESEX 1739-1816 LONDON) - photo 2
FRANCIS TOWNE (MIDDLESEX 1739-1816 LONDON) - photo 3
FRANCIS TOWNE (MIDDLESEX 1739-1816 LONDON) - photo 4

FRANCIS TOWNE (MIDDLESEX 1739-1816 LONDON)

Lot 156
03.12.2025 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1513650
Lot 156 | FRANCIS TOWNE (MIDDLESEX 1739-1816 LONDON)
Estimate value
£ 25 000 – 35 000
FRANCIS TOWNE (MIDDLESEX 1739-1816 LONDON)
Glacier from Montanvert: looking toward Mont Blanc
signed, inscribed and dated 'Glaciere [sic] taken from Montanvert looking towards mount Blanc / Septr . 06th. 1781 / 12 OClock light from the right Hand / Francis Towne' and numbered 'No. 9' (verso) and further variously inscribed with the artists descriptive notes (recto)
pencil, pen and black ink, blue and grey wash on laid sketchbook paper, partial watermark of a sun
9 ¾ x 26 ¾ (24.9 x 68.2 cm.)




Provenance

Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to
James White of Exeter (1744-1825), and by bequest to
John Herman Merivale (1779-1844), and by descent to his granddaughters
Maria Sophia Merivale (1853-1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860-1945), Oxford, May 1915, by whom sold to
Janet Buchanan Adam Smith (1905-1999), Oxford, 1934, and by descent to the present owner.



Literature

J. Adam Smith, 'Switzerland and The Alps', The Listener, 31 July 1935, vol. XIV, no. 342, p. 177.
J. Adam Smith, Mountain Holidays, London, 1946, p. 47.
A. Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, London, 1962, pp. 88, 101, 151.
L. Herrmann, British Landscape Painting of the 18th Century, London, 1973, p. 78.
J. Adam Smith and P. Bicknell, 'Wordsworth and the Alps', Alpine Journal, 1992-3, p. 206, pl. 66.
R. Stephens, Catalogue Raisonné of Francis Towne (1739-1816), online edition, accessed 2025, no. FT383, ill.



Exhibited

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Academy Bicentenary Exhibition, December 1968-March 1969, no. 672.
Grasmere, Cumbria, Wordsworth Trust, Wordsworth and the Alps, July-November 1990.
London, Tate Gallery and Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery, Francis Towne, June 1997-January 1998, no. 42.
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