- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Villa of Maecenas, Tivoli
- Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli from below the falls
- Date
- 1781
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 501mm,
- image length 382mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “Tivoli / Villa of Mecenes No.24 / Francis Towne delt’”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.24 / Italy / Villa of Maecenas at Tivoli / Francis Towne delt / 1781”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,3.8)
- Catalogue Number
- FT263
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), who gave it in 1818 to the present owner, the British Museum (Nn.3.08).
- Associated People & Organisations
- British Museum, London, 1818, Nn,3.8
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- 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. 202
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 127
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 112
Other entries in Italy Series, April to June 1781
Francis Towne
Thirteen Miles on the Road from Rome to Tivoli
Thirteen Miles on the Road from Rome to Tivoli
Francis Towne
A View of Rocca di Papa with Part of the Convent
A View of Rocca di Papa with Part of the Convent
Francis Towne
A View of the Spot where Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
A View of the Spot where Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
Francis Towne
A View of the Spot from which Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
A View of the Spot from which Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
Francis Towne
Monte Porzio Catone from the Park of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati
Monte Porzio Catone from the Park of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati
Francis Towne
Blasted Pine Tree in the Villa Mondragone, Frascati
Blasted Pine Tree in the Villa Mondragone, Frascati
Footnotes
- 1 John Warwick Smith, The Temple of Hercules Victor, ca. 1776–81 (Wilton & Bignamini 1996); Jacob More, The Temple of Hercules Victor, 1780s? (Andrew 1993).
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Comment
The temple known to Towne as the Villa of Maecenas is now known as the Temple of Hercules Victor. Similar views exist by John “Warwick” Smith and Jacob More.1