- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Baths of Caracalla
- Date
- 1781/01
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey and brown ink, watercolour, gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 325mm,
- image length 504mm
- Support
- two sheets of laid paper with a vertical crease down the centre of the larger sheet
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “No35 / F.Towne. delt / Janry 1781”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Rome light from the left hand / No35 / The Baths of Caracalla / Janry 1781 [the date over the inscription “Janry 1781”] drawn / on the Spot by / Francis Towne”
- in brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.9)
- Catalogue Number
- FT205
- 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.1.9).
- 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. 181 as 'Baths of Caracalla'
- unidentified exhibition, British Museum, 1981
- 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
- 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
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 69
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 is a view looking north-east from the top of the Baths of Caracalla towards the Vatican. Church buildings on the Aventine Hill are visible in the middle distance (they can be seen from the opposite direction in FT210).
Near the top of the fragmentary arch, just left of centre of the drawing, Towne has drawn some foliage to suggest a bearded human head. Other examples of Towne’s rendering of anamorphic foliage are seen in FT238 and FT640.