View of the cataract of the Mothvaye, Merionethshire, North Wales

Francis Towne (1740-1816)
View of the cataract of the Mothvaye, Merionethshire, North Wales

Signed lower left: No.14/F. Towne delt/1777 and inscribed on the reverse of the original mount: No. 14/A View of the Cataract of the Mothvaye/in Merionethshire North Wales/drawn on the spot/by/Francis Towne/1777/London/Leicester Square/June 20th 1777
Pen and black ink and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour and scratching out on five sheets of paper joined with watermark: I VILLEDARY
31.8 by 43.2 cm., 12 by 17 in.

Provenance:
Bequeathed by the artist to James White (1745-1825);
By bequest to John Herman Merivale, 1825, and by descent in the family to his grand daughter Emily Harriet Buckingham, 1915;
By descent to her sister Frances Ann Laura Solly, 1923;
With Thos. Agnew, London, from whom purchased by Wayland Wells Williams, May 1936;
By descent to Mrs Elizabeth Williams Garstin by 1950;
By descent to Mrs Cynthia Garstin Blackwell by 1962, her sale, Christie's London, 21st November 2007, lot 27
Exhibited:
London, Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 46 as 'Cataract of the Mothvay'; London, Agnew's, Exhibition of Selected Watercolour Drawings by Artists of the Early English School, Feburary to March 1922, no. 120, lent by Emily Buckingham;
Manchester, Agnew's, The 49th Exhibtion of Selected Watercolour Drawings by Artists of the Early English School In Aid of the Manchester Royal Infirmary, November & December 1922, no. 7;
Manchester, Agnew's, The Fiftieth Annual Exhibition of Selected Water Colour Drawings, November to December 1923, no. 22;
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Special Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Prints and Drawings from New England Collections, not dated, no. 632;
Yale, Yale University Art Gallery, Prospects: An Exhibition of English Landscape Watercolors from English and American Private Collections, 1950, no. 60, lent from the Wayland Wells Williams Collection by Mrs Elizabeth Williams Garstin 
Literature:
Adrian Bury, Lone Star of Watercolour Painting, London, 1962, p. 151; Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, London, 1997, p. 43, fig. 14
This watercolour dates from Towne's first major tour outside his native Devon in June and July 1777 made in the company of his friend the lawyer James White. His works from this tour are numbered from no. 1, a view of Bridgenorth dated 20th June, to no. 54, a view of Glastonbury Abbey drawn on his return journey. He used differing sized sheets on this tour but this is one of his largest.