Description
Creator
Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
Title(s)
  • Hadrian's Villa
Date
1781/05/22
Medium
Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour
Dimensions
  • image width 153mm,
  • image length 215mm
Support
the paper with a partial watermark of a coronet within a bracket design
Inscription
  • sheet, verso
  • “No.41 / May 22. 1781. Villa / Adriana. Light coming / on the left-hand side. / Francis Towne”
Object Type
Watercolour

Catalogue Number
FT273
Description Sources
Examination; Christie's records (image)

Provenance

Untraced until identified in the collection of Selwyn Image (1849–1930) by Oppé in 1920. It was sold at Christie’s on 20 November 1953, lot 29 (a pair with FT274), for £124 5s. (for the pair) to Agnew’s (no.7285 or 7286), who bought it on behalf of Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973). According to Christie’s in 2013, Agnew’s paid 185 guineas at the 1953 sale and sold it to Worsley for 190 guineas. Worsley’s family offered it for sale unsuccessfully at Christie’s on 5 June 2003, lot 43, and eventually sold it at Christie’s on 2 July 2013, lot 36, for £6,875.

Associated People & Organisations

Christie's, London, London, 2 August 2013, lot 36
Christie's, London, London, 5 June 2003, lot 43
Unsold
Sir William Worsley (1890 - 1973), 20 November 1953
Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 20 November 1953, GBP 124.5s, no.7285 or 7286
Christie's, London, London, 20 November 1953, lot 29
offered as a pair with FT274
Selwyn Image (1849 - 1930), 1920
Private Collection, 2 July 2013, GBP 6875
Exhibition History
Early English Water Colours, Leeds City Art Gallery, 8 October 1958 to 23 November 1958, no. 92
Bibliography
Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 95, 143
Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 111
Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 58
Sir William Worsley, Early English Water-Colours at Hovingham Hall: 1963, p. 13

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