File talk:Francis Towne - On The Dart.jpg

Comment about attribution

Dear Wikipedia,
This watercolour is not by Francis Towne, but by his pupil John White Abbott. When it first came to light in the early 1920s, it was owned by the same family to whom Towne had bequeathed his studio contents a century earlier which, together with the facts that White Abbott imitated his teacher's style closely and that White Abbott's name had itself fallen into obscurity, made people assume this was by Towne. And it was illustrated as such in Cundall's book, which is where you got the image from. But I assure you that it is by White Abbott. I'm afraid I don't know a better way of alerting you to this fact than by posting this message. Thank you for all your work on this amazing website.
Best wishes
Richard Stephens
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.1.107.16 (talk • contribs) 18:42, 31 August 2016‎ (UTC)