This is an imaginary scene with memories of Italy, rather than a copy of number 44 or 54 in the Italy series. It documents Towne’s friendship with William Holwell Carr, the Exeter connoisseur who was close friends with Towne in old age, writing in 1801 that he saw “Towne at tea & supper three or four times a week”¹ and sitting with the artist during his final illness. Apart from the works of 1780–81 that Towne bequeathed to the British Museum, it is the only example known where Towne made a gift of a surviving work.

If Towne gave it around the time that he had made it, then it would be by far the latest finished watercolour that survives from Towne’s hand. All the other watercolours that post-date Towne’s 1805 exhibition and the lull in production that followed it are small sketchbook studies, rather than fully worked-up independent sheets. This shows with what subtlety Towne was able to paint with a brush, without recourse to pen and ink. The upper parts of the main trees, and especially the central tree and the foliage of the trees behind and to its right, are painted with a sensitivity to the medium not seen elsewhere in Towne’s watercolour-only work. Perhaps this success was itself a reason to make a gift of the drawing.