An Ivy Covered Ruin

Francis Towne

late 1780s–early 1790s · Watercolor with pen and brown ink with traces of graphite · Drawings and Prints

This watercolor likely represents a ruin in Wales, with the inscription and number 57 connecting it to a series that Towne made when he traveled there in 1777. The style is more consistent, however, with his work of the next decade, so the artist must have returned to or reworked an earlier composition, a characteristic practice. Layered colored washes in the trees resemble those in his "The Cascade in the Groves at Ambleside," 1786 (Private Collection), while the massively buttressed medieval ruin overgrown with greenery demonstrates Towne’s engagement with the picturesque.

Artist

Francis Towne

Date

late 1780s–early 1790s

Medium

Watercolor with pen and brown ink with traces of graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Roberta J. M. Olson and Alexander B. V. Johnson, in memory of Laurie Vance Johnson and E. Dudley H. Johnson, 2013