- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- A view on the Palatine Hill
- Date
- 1781
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour with gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 325mm,
- image length 474mm
- Support
- laid paper watermarked "J WHATMAN"
- Mount
- mounted by the artist on paper watermarked "J WHATMAN 1794"
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F Towne / delt 1781 No40”
- in dark brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.40 / Rome / A View taken on the Palatine Mount / by / Francis Towne / 1781 [the year over indistinct scratched-out text]”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.13)
- Catalogue Number
- FT210
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the object
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.1.13).
- 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. 174, 175, 176, 177 or 178 as 'On the Palatine Mount'
- 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. 201
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 76, 126
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 113
Other entries in Rome Series, October 1780–July 1781
Francis Towne
Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia
Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia
Francis Towne
Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana
Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana
Francis Towne
Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara
Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara
Francis Towne
Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese
Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese
Francis Towne
A Sepulchre by the Road between Rome and the Ponte Nomentana
A Sepulchre by the Road between Rome and the Ponte Nomentana
Francis Towne
The Old Wall of Rome at the back of the Villa Medici
The Old Wall of Rome at the back of the Villa Medici
Francis Towne
St Maria Nuova with the Temple of Venus and Rome
St Maria Nuova with the Temple of Venus and Rome
Francis Towne
The Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
The Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
Francis Towne
Going out from the Porta Pia, looking towards the Sabine Mountains
Going out from the Porta Pia, looking towards the Sabine Mountains
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Comment
This is a south-west view from the Palatine Hill looking towards the Aventine Hill on the right and the pyramidal tomb of Caio Cesto in the centre. To the left of the tomb are visible the ancient walls of Rome and the two towers of the Porta San Paolo, just beyond which was the Protestant cemetery, where William Pars was to be buried the year after Towne made this sketch. The strong, yellow, setting sun provides appropriate lighting for a scene with such mortuary components.
Pen does not dominate in this view and the foreground-right portion has been picked out heavily in dark brown ink and gum, a sign of it having been worked up around the time when the mount was applied.