- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Going into the Villa Ludovisi
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 464mm,
- image length 322mm
- Support
- laid paper with a horizontal crease along its centre
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “F.Towne. delt / No19. Decr. 9. 178[indistinct]”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- indistinct
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.19 / Going into the Villa B. Ludovici[this word above the line] C. / Rome Francis Towne delt.”
- in brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,2.25)
- Catalogue Number
- FT189
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the object
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White (1744–1825) of Exeter, who gave it in 1816 to the present owner, the British Museum, London (Nn.2.25).
- 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. 158 as 'Going into the Villa Ludovisi'
- unidentified exhibition, British Museum, 1981
- British Landscape Watercolours 1600-1860 at the British Museum, British Museum, 1985, no. 34
- The Great Age of British Watercolours 1750-1880, Royal Academy of Arts, 1993, no. 268
- 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. 200
- Henri Lemaitre, Le Paysage Anglais a l'Aquarelle 1760-1951, Bordas: Paris, 1955, p. 154
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 124
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, pp. 55-56
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
Footnotes
- 1 John Downman, Villa Ludovisi, 1774 (www.tate.org.uk).
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Comment
Villa Ludovisi’s gardens and collections were the creation of Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi (1595–1632) and were among the most celebrated gardens of eighteenth-century Rome. As Wilcox observed, John Downman also depicted this wall.1
There is some blue watercolour on the centre right of the mount; perhaps Towne has touched up the drawing to minimise the effect of the crease mark. The paper has been cut at its right edge, obliterating the fourth digit of the year “178”.