An Ivy Covered Ruin. Artist: Francis Towne (British, Isleworth, Middlesex 1739-1816 Exeter). Dimensions: Sheet: 8 1/4 × 10 1/2 in. (20.9 × 26.6 cm). Date: late 1780s-early 1790s.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. Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.