- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- In the Villa Barberini
- Date
- 1781
- Medium
- Pen and black ink, watercolour with gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 354mm,
- image length 267mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist, the mount now stuck down on a modern mount
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “No.53 / F.Towne. delt / 1781”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “1781. Evening Sun from the right hand”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.23)
- Catalogue Number
- FT223
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the work
John Thomas 'Antiquity' Smith, Catalogue of the Towne Bequest, 1817, Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), who gave it in 1816 to the present owner, the British Museum, London (Nn.1.23).
- Associated People & Organisations
- British Museum
- James White (1744 - 1825)
- Exhibition History
- [?] Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 146 or 147 as 'In the Villa Barberini'
- unidentified exhibition, British Museum, 1934, no. 421
- Light, time, legacy: Francis Towne’s watercolours of Rome, British Museum, 2016
- Bibliography
- Laurence Binyon, Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists and Artists of Foreign Origin Working in Great Britain Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Trustees of the British Museum: London, 1907, p. 202
- Henri Lemaitre, Le Paysage Anglais a l'Aquarelle 1760-1951, Bordas: Paris, 1955, p. 156
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 113
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 126
- Luke Herrmann, British Landscape Painting of the 18th Century, Faber: London, 1973, p. 77
Other entries in Rome Series, October 1780–July 1781
Francis Towne
Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia
Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia
Francis Towne
Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana
Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana
Francis Towne
Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara
Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara
Francis Towne
Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese
Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese
Francis Towne
A Sepulchre by the Road between Rome and the Ponte Nomentana
A Sepulchre by the Road between Rome and the Ponte Nomentana
Francis Towne
The Old Wall of Rome at the back of the Villa Medici
The Old Wall of Rome at the back of the Villa Medici
Francis Towne
St Maria Nuova with the Temple of Venus and Rome
St Maria Nuova with the Temple of Venus and Rome
Francis Towne
The Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
The Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
Francis Towne
Going out from the Porta Pia, looking towards the Sabine Mountains
Going out from the Porta Pia, looking towards the Sabine Mountains
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Comment
This drawing is identified as a view of the Villa Barberini gardens on the basis of the British Museum’s manuscript catalogue of the initial tranche of Towne’s drawings made in 1817.
Towne has used a great deal of gum and the intense orange and blues of the sky are similar to those in FT312 and FT313.