- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- In the Villa Barberini
- Date
- 1781/05/26
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour with gum, scratching out
- Dimensions
-
- image width 270mm,
- image length 369mm
- Support
- laid paper with an indistinct watermark
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne / delt. 1781 / No52[inscribed over another “No52”]”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Rome / No52 in the Villa Barberini / Drawn on the Spot / by / Francis Towne / [“May 26th 1781” scratched out] 1781 [the year in dark brown ink] / Evening light coming through the / Trees on the left hand”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.22)
- Catalogue Number
- FT222
- 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.1.22).
- 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. 146 or 147 as 'In the Villa Barberini'
- unidentified exhibition, British Museum, 1934, no. 420
- Francis Towne, Tate Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery, 24 June 1997 - 4 January 1998, no. 28
- 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. 202
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 126
- Henri Lemaitre, Le Paysage Anglais a l'Aquarelle 1760-1951, Bordas: Paris, 1955, p. 156
- 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
Villa Barberini was one of the major palaces of Rome, adjacent to Villa Ludovisi (FT189) near Porta Pia and Porta Salara. This is one of two drawings of the villa’s gardens, the other being FT223. Neither looks like a work primarily of the early 1780s, and they were surely worked up substantially decades later.