- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View of a Bridge Fifteen Miles from Florence on the Road to Bologna
- A Bridge Between Florence and Bologna
- A Bridge in the road from Florence to Bologna
- Date
- 1781/08/11
- Medium
- Pencil (?), pen and ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 157mm,
- image length 222mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist on laid paper
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne. delt. / No.7. 1781”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “A View of / A Bridge, 15 miles in the road from Florence / to Bologna, / drawn August 11th 1781 by Francis Towne / Light from the right hand.” in brown ink; according to Leonard Duke’s note attached to the museum mount, Towne inscribed, top left, “No.7” and, top right, “Light from the right hand”, but neither of these inscriptions remains on the mount (which presumably has been cut down, as the drawing is not centered on the mount)
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT303
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
Provenance
Untraced until sold by Samuel in May 1925 to Leonard Duke (1889–1971; no.D2467) for £4. In January 1961 Duke sold the drawing for £220 (perhaps via Colnaghi’s) to Paul Mellon (1907–1999), who gave it to the present owner, the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B1977.14.5375; gift to Yale, December 1977).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, December 1977, B1977.14.5375
- Mr Paul Mellon (1907 - 1999), January 1961, GBP 220
- [?] P&D Colnaghi & Co, London
Sold by Leonard Duke (perhaps via Colnaghi's) to Paul Mellon - Leonard Duke (1889 - 1971), May 1925, GBP 4, no.D246
- Exhibition History
- Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 130 as 'A Bridge in the road from Florence to Bologna'
- Catalogue of a collection of pictures, drawings, furniture and works of art of the Empire and Regency period : select examples of Romano-British art, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1929, no. 22
- Catalogue of drawings and watercolours of the English School (from Francis Barlow (1626-1702) to Philip Wilson Steer (1860-1942)) from the collection of Leonard Duke, Eton College, 1948
- Eighteenth-Century Italy and the Grand Tour, Castle Museum, 1958, no. 100
- Bibliography
- Martin Hardie, 'Early Artists of the British Watercolour School: Francis Towne', The Collector... a magazine for lovers of art, No. 40; No. 41: London, 1930
- Ann Sumner and Greg Smith (ed.), Thomas Jones (1742-1803) : An Artist Rediscovered, Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2003, p. 178
Other entries in Small Sketchbook: Northern Italy, Switzerland, Savoy and Germany, August and September 1781
Francis Towne
A View of a Bridge Fifteen Miles from Florence on the Road to Bologna
A View of a Bridge Fifteen Miles from Florence on the Road to Bologna
Francis Towne
Le Rêve at the Head of Lake Como (Lago di Mezzola)
Le Rêve at the Head of Lake Como (Lago di Mezzola)
Footnotes
- 1 Thomas Jones, Nineteen Miles from Florence, 1776 (www.llgc.org.uk/pencerrig).
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Comment
This is probably the same bridge depicted by Thomas Jones, which he described as being nineteen miles from Florence (fig.303a), and most probably the bridge between Vaglia and Cafaggiolo.1