In Tate Britain
Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- Francis Towne 1739–1816
- Medium
- Ink, watercolour and gum arabic on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 354 × 490 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased as part of the Oppé Collection with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund 1996
- Reference
- T08194
Display caption
Netley Abbey, just outside Southampton, had ghostly associations that dated back to the seventeenth century. This meant it suited current taste for the ‘Gothic’ particularly well. Towne visited the Abbey
in 1798, though this watercolour was created later and exhibited in 1809.
Towne was conforming to contemporary taste by choosing this subject, though his technique remains closer to older traditions. Earlier artists had produced
what were effectively coloured-in drawings, in contrast to the more textural use of watercolour seen in the work of younger artists like Girtin and Turner.
Gallery label, September 2004
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