Windermere

Maker Francis Towne (British, 1740-1816)

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Date1786

Mediumpen and brown ink and watercolor over graphite on two joined sheets of laid paper mounted on laid paper

DimensionsImage: 6 1/8 × 18 3/4 in. (15.6 × 47.6 cm.)

SignedSigned on lower left of recto in brown ink: F. Towne delt. 1786, No. 27

InscribedInscribed in iron gall ink on verso: a View of Windermere, Westmoreland- August the 16th .1786, drawn by Francis Towne. Light from the right hand 4 o'clock in the afternoon. No 27

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gilbert Davis Collection

Status

Not on view

Label TextIn the summer of 1786, Towne spent a number of weeks in the Lake District of northern England, filling two large sketchbooks and a portfolio with drawings. This view of Lake Windermere was made, as the artist’s inscription notes, on August 16 around 4:00 p.m. Though he drew the pencil outlines on the spot, Towne typically dismantled his sketchbooks at the end of a journey, joining the pages together and coloring them with watercolor. He altered the right third of this drawing later, as shown by the discontinuation of the pen lines along the top ridge of the mountain and at the lakeshore below (2022).

Object number59.55.1274

Terms