Berry Pomeroy Castle in the County of Devon

Francis Towne

(?) 1775–1805 · Watercolor and pen and ink on a sheet formed out of two joined pieces of paper · Drawings and Prints

Towne’s composition focuses on a famous ruin and eighteenth-century tourist attraction. Berry Pomeroy Castle sits over a gorge of the river Dart, near Totnes, in Devonshire, its high position suggested by tiny figures that descend a steep lane at right. Greatest emphasis is given to crumbling walls overgrown with bushes and ivy. Unusually, the artist worked on this drawing in two, widely separated, stages. In the 1770s, he sketched the composition in graphite while at the site, then developed it with colored washes. Decades later he enriched it further, mixing his washes with gum to achieve effects comparable to oil.

Artist

Francis Towne

Date

(?) 1775–1805

Medium

Watercolor and pen and ink on a sheet formed out of two joined pieces of paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Brooke Russell Astor Bequest, 2013