- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A View of St. Peter’s, Rome
- Date
- No date
- Object Type
- Unknown
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT575
- Description Sources
- Exhibition catalogue
- Associated People & Organisations
- Untraced
Other entries in Exhibited
Francis Towne
A large Landscape, with a Scene in Shakespeare’s Cymberline
A large Landscape, with a Scene in Shakespeare’s Cymberline
Francis Towne
The Wrekin in Shropshire going off of a storm
The Wrekin in Shropshire going off of a storm
Francis Towne
A View on the River Exe, taken near the Seat of Sir Francis Drake, Devonshire
A View on the River Exe, taken near the Seat of Sir Francis Drake, Devonshire
Francis Towne
Chateau de Blonay near Vevey, at the Head of Lake Geneva
Chateau de Blonay near Vevey, at the Head of Lake Geneva
Francis Towne
The Ruins of La Bathia, near Martigny, Switzerland
The Ruins of La Bathia, near Martigny, Switzerland
Francis Towne
A View in Neptune’s Grotto of the Sybil’s Temple at Tivoli
A View in Neptune’s Grotto of the Sybil’s Temple at Tivoli
Francis Towne
View of the Passage over Mount Splugen in the Alps
View of the Passage over Mount Splugen in the Alps
Francis Towne
View near the Chateau de Chillon at the Head of Lake Geneva
View near the Chateau de Chillon at the Head of Lake Geneva
Footnotes
- 1 Autobiography of Dean Merivale with Selections from his Correspondence, ed. Judith Ann Merivale, London, 1889, p.168.
Revisions & Feedback
The website will be updated from time to time and, when changes are made, a PDF of the previous version of each page will be archived here for consultation and citation.
Please help us to improve this catalogue
If you have information, a correction or any other suggestions to improve this catalogue, please contact us.
Comment
The assumption is that this exhibit was in oil as Towne’s exhibits of 1789 (FT557), 1792 (FT572), 1797 (FT590) and 1800 (FT616, FT617) appear to have been. No preparatory studies are known but perhaps the source was a 1781 work (FT211). Alternatively the 1794 exhibit may be related to a view of St Peter’s from Monte Mario that was apparently by John White Abbott (Sotheby’s, 21 March 2001, lot 170) but that Abbott had clearly copied from another source, not improbably an unrecorded work by Towne. When Charles Dean Merivale wrote to his mother to describe his night-time entry into Rome in 1846, he refers to a picture by Towne of St Peter’s:
The deep-cut road and sight of St Peter’s bring to mind FT211; that drawing was in the British Museum, where probably Charles Merivale had not seen it—or at any rate where it is unlikely to have been familiar enough to cite in a letter to his mother. Merivale may well, though, have been referring to a version of it that Towne had painted in oil.