- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- St Maria Nuova with the Temple of Venus and Rome
- Date
- 1781/06/27
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 317mm,
- image length 327mm
- Support
- paper with watermark with a Fleur de lis within coronet design, and a crease along upper part of paper
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne / No42. 1781”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.42 / St. Maria Nuova with the / Temple of the Sun & Moon. taken from the Coloseo [“June 27th 1781” scratched out] Rome. Francis Towne. delt.”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.15)
- Catalogue Number
- FT212
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the object
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.1.15).
- 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. 170 as 'St.Maria Nuova, and the Ruins of the Temple of the Sun, and Arch of Titus'
- Francis Towne, Tate Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery, 24 June 1997 - 4 January 1998, no. 29
- 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. 201
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 126
- Martin Hardie, Water-Colour Painting in Britain, ed. Dudley Snelgrove, London: B. T. Batsford, 1966, p. 121
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, pp. 113-114
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
Footnotes
- 1 Pars’s version, dated 1781, is at the Yale Center for British Art.
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Comment
The drawing is taken in the shadow of the Colosseum, looking west towards the Church of S. Maria Nuova and the ruins of the Temple of Venus and Rome.
Views of this subject by William Pars, Louis Ducros, Louis Desprez, Jacob Phillip Hackert, and Thomas Jones exist.1 It is clear from these that Towne has minimised the physical drop in front of the temple by neglecting to work up the mid-ground area. Both Pars and Towne have introduced a shepherd and his flock into the undulating mid-ground.