- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View at Geneva near where the Arve falls into the Rhone
- Date
- 1780/09/07
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour, gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 209mm,
- image length 270mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne / delt 1780 / No2”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.2 / A View at Geneva near where the Arve, falls into the Rhone, drawn by Francis Towne / Septr 7th, 1780.”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,2.2)
- Catalogue Number
- FT166
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
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 (1972.U.600/Nn,1.1b).
- 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. 103 as 'Near Geneva'
- 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. 198
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 31, 73, 111, 123
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 109
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, pp. 54, 60
Other entries in The Journey to Rome, September 1780
Francis Towne
A View taken at Geneva where the Rhone comes from the Lake under the Bridge
A View taken at Geneva where the Rhone comes from the Lake under the Bridge
Francis Towne
A View at Geneva near where the Arve falls into the Rhone
A View at Geneva near where the Arve falls into the Rhone
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Comment
The Rivers Arve and Rhône join together west of the historic centre of Geneva, still undeveloped countryside in 1780. If the channel of water in the foreground could be taken to be the muddy Arve, and the larger mid-ground stream the crystal-clear Rhône, then this would be a view looking north-east towards Lake Geneva, with the buildings representing the city’s outskirts.