- Museum number
- 1850,0223.834
- Description
-
York from St Mary's tower; view looking along the river Ouse with barge, St Mary's tower in the foreground, the Water Tower, the Guildhall, St Martin's Coney St, All Hallows, North St Postern, the spire of St Mary's, St Michael's, All Saints', and spire of St Martin's Micklegate
Pen and ink and grey wash, with reddish-brown wash, on two conjoined leaves
- Production date
- 1647-1728
- Dimensions
-
Height: 100 millimetres
-
Width: 449 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- K Sloan, Noble Art 2000
In 1678, the year Place toured Wales with William Lodge, the younger artist etched two views of York (1.00). Their compositions were similar to sketches by Place that were probably made the same year. It has been suggested that Place’s sketches were based on Lodge’s etchings, but the viewpoints are slightly different and it seems more likely that the viewpoint was a popular one.
Place’s view shows the Lendal Tower, on the left bank beyond St Mary’s Tower, before it was repaired and an additional story added in 1682. The Water Tower is the substantial round building on the far left of the drawing. In 1692, Place sub-let part of the King’s Manor in York and he married the following year. His travels did not cease - in 1698 he spent a year travelling and sketching in Ireland and in 1701 he visited Scotland. But after that, the year his second daughter was born, he confined his sketching trips to Yorkshire. It was while concentrating on subjects of local interest in this decade that he returned to this subject for a group of four prints and a finished drawing, similar in style and medium to the view of Richmond of 1674. The plates passed to Francis Drake and were later issued with Lodge’s as illustrations to his history of York, Eboracum (1736). The later drawings too, probably belonged to Drake and this may explain why they were so different in style and finish from his other works of this period which remained in the artist’s own hands.
Literature: Henry M. Hake, 'Some contemporary records relating to Francis Place...with a catalogue of his engraved work', Walpole Society, X, 1922, pp. 46-7; Richard Tyler, 'Drawings by Francis Place in Leeds', Leeds Art Calendar, 62, 1968, pp. 12-19; Tyler, p. 86
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1971 April, York, City Art Gallery, 'Francis Place', no.8
1971 May, London, Kenwood, Iveagh Bequest, 'Francis Place', no.8
2000 May-Sep, BM P&D, 'A Noble Art', no.16
2012 April-Aug, York, Fairfax House, Views of York
- Acquisition date
- 1850
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1850,0223.834
