A View from Martinelli's Vineyard

Description

Creator: Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)

Title(s)

A View from Martinelli's Vineyard

Date: 1780/11/02

Medium: Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with gum

Dimensions

image width 208mm,
image length 268mm

Support: laid paper

Mount: mounted by the artist

Inscription

sheet, recto, lower right
“F.Towne. delt Rome / No.10. Novr. 2d. 1780’”

Inscription

artist's mount, verso
“No.10 / A View taken from Martinelli’s Vineyard / 2 miles from Rome going out of the Porta Pia, from 10 till 1 o Clock / Francis Towne delt. / Novr. 2d. 1780 [date in dark brown ink over scratched-out “Novr. 2d. 1780”]”

Object Type: Watercolour

Collection

(Nn,2.10)

Catalogue Number: FT180

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 (Nn.2.10).

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. 138 as 'Going out of Porta Pia, Rome'; Travels in Italy 1776-1783 based on the Memoirs of Thomas Jones, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 1988, no. 34; 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. 199; Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 124; Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 109; Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 62

Comment

This is a countryside view in the same genre as FT177 and FT179 and the Oppé collection example by John “Warwick” Smith cited in the Comment to FT179 (which shows Martinelli’s house and is inscribed “Distant View of the hills of Frascati & Monte Cavo”). Martinelli’s villa north-east of Rome was described by Thomas Jones, who visited it often in 1778:

During the last as well as the present and succeeding Months, I made many very agreeable excursions to a Villa near S’o Agnese without the Porta Pia – This Villa was situated upon a gentle Ascent which commanded a view of the City of Rome on One hand, and the Campagna with the Appenine Mountains on the Other – it belonged to Sig’re Martinelli, a Roman, of good family, but rather reduced in Circumstances – He had originaly a large Extent of Vineyards about it, but had been obliged to dispose of the greatest part to Barrazzi the Banker, who had built himself a handsome Country house in the Neighbourhood – With this Sig’re Martinelli, little Couzins the Landscape Painter lodged in Rome and as he was not well in health, when the Weather was favourable, resided at this Villa for the benefit of the Air, and riding about on jackAss which he had purchased for that purpose – Here I made some Studies in Oil of the surrounding Scenery and was accommodated with a nice Poney whenever I pleased to take an Airing with little Cousins and his jackAss –¹

Towne made another sketch of Martinelli’s house, which he also numbered 10 but left in a monochrome state (FT225). Evidently he rejected it for inclusion within the Rome series.

by Richard Stephens

Footnotes

1 Jones 1951, p.73, entry for 1 June 1778

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Provenance

Comment

Other entries in Rome Series, October 1780–July 1781

Inside the Colosseum 1780

A View on the Banks of the Tiber 1780

On the Banks of the Tiber near Ponte Molle 1780

On the Banks of the Tiber near Ponte Molle 1780

Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia 1780

Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana 1780

Temple of Bacchus in the Distance 1780

Temple of Bacchus Two Miles from Rome 1780

Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara 1780