- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Baths of Caracalla
- Date
- 1781/01
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 326mm,
- image length 477mm
- Support
- laid paper with a vertical crease down centre of paper, watermarked with a fleur-de-lis within coronet design
- Mount
- mounted by the artist on wove paper watermarked "1811"
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “No33 / Francis Towne / delt 1781”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Rome / Morning light from the left hand / No33 / The Baths of Caracalla / Janry 1781 drawn on the Spot by Francis Towne”
- in brown ink, in shaky (late) handwriting
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.7)
- Catalogue Number
- FT203
- 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.1.7).
- Associated People & Organisations
- British Museum
- James White (1744 - 1825)
- Exhibition History
- Royal Academy Bicentenary Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, 1968, no. 673
- Francis Towne, Tate Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery, 24 June 1997 - 4 January 1998, no. 22
- 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, pp. 76, 125
- Martin Hardie, Water-Colour Painting in Britain, ed. Dudley Snelgrove, London: B. T. Batsford, 1966, p. 120
- Henri Lemaitre, Le Paysage Anglais a l'Aquarelle 1760-1951, Bordas: Paris, 1955, p. 157
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 111
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 British Museum, 1936,0704.25.
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Comment
The drawing was made on the same spot as the easterly view of FT202, but in this case the direction of Towne’s view is somewhat closer to the south. At its centre the drawing depicts the fortified tomb of Cecilia Metella, situated on the Via Appia Antica, which is also visible in FT206. A similar drawing by John “Warwick” Smith exists.1 See also the Comment at FT202.
The watermarked date of the mount shows that Towne was working on this drawing very late in life. Another work was mounted in June 1811 (FT257) and, in common with the Caracalla pictures, was not altered significantly as many other Italian works had been.