Berry Pomeroy Castle in the County of Devon

Francis Towne British

Not on view

Towne's composition focuses on a famous ruin and 18th century tourist attraction. Berry Pomeroy Castle sits over a gorge of the river Dart, near Totnes in Devonshire, its height 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. Around 1775 he sketched the composition in graphite while at the site the, in the mid-1780s, added layers of rich color, mixing his washes with gum to achieve effects comparable to oil.

Berry Pomeroy Castle in the County of Devon, Francis Towne (British, Isleworth, Middlesex 1739–1816 Exeter), Watercolor and pen and ink on a sheet formed out of two joined pieces of paper

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