JOHN WHITE ABBOTT (EXETER 1763-1851)

This drawing is based on a now lost work by Abbott's master Francis Towne (FT337) and repeats Towne's inscriptions on the verso. It depicts the Aiguilles du Dru, near Chamonix, a vast pyramidal mountain in the Mont Blanc range. White Abbott, who was an Exeter pupil of Towne's, never travelled to Europe, but made over twenty copies after Towne's watercolours of the Alps, clearly inspired by the dramatic landscapes.
Towne took this view from Montanvert, the mountain he had climbed to view the Mer de Glace glacier on 16 September 1781, the origin of his most famour watercolour.