- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Colosseum
- Date
- ca. 1781/10/30
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour, gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 312mm,
- image length 464mm
- Support
- laid paper
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne delt / Rome 1781 / No 23”
- in brown ink; inscription is cut off at the bottom edge, presumably when being mounted
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.23 / Coloseo with the Baths of Titus & Arch of Constantine taken from the Palatine mount / Rome Francis Towne delt. [“Octr. 30th 1780” scratched out] 1781”
- the year in dark brown ink, the rest in brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,2.28)
- Versions
- The Colosseum
- Catalogue Number
- FT193
- 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.2.28).
- 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. 184 as 'Coliseo'
- 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. 200
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 75, 125
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 62
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
As Towne’s inscription mentions, the view is from the Palatine Hill, very near his position when drawing FT183. It was a popular vantage point for Towne’s contemporaries, including John “Warwick” Smith and Thomas Jones, who adopted very similar positions in their drawings.
Towne made a version of this work dated 1799 (FT602).
Although Towne has attempted to alter the date inscribed on this drawing to suggest a later date of execution, the composition itself is consistent with the earliest phase of his Roman studies in late 1780, when Towne drew his subjects as distant objects (for example FT172, FT173, FT174, FT175, FT177, FT178, FT179, FT180), in contrast to the drawings of 1781 whose foregrounds are a major part of the composition (for example FT197, FT199, FT202, FT203, FT204).