- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Lake Como
- Date
- ca. 1781/08/27
- Medium
- Pen and brown and grey inks, watercolour, scratching out
- Dimensions
-
- image width 155mm,
- image length 211mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “No.26 / F.Towne / 1781”
- in grey ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.26 / Lake of Como / drawn from Nature / by / Francis Towne / [“August 27th 1781” scratched out] / light from the right / hand”
- in shaky handwriting typical of Towne’s old age
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (T09244)
- Catalogue Number
- FT318
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
Provenance
Untraced until sold anonymously at Foster’s on 27 July 1910, lot 151 (a group with FT228, FT257, FT283, FT284, FT296, FT310, FT318, FT319, FT325, FT326, FT327, FT329, FT330, FT339, FT340, FT361, FT793, FT862), for 25s. to Paul Oppé (1878–1957; no.53), whose descendants sold it in 1996 with the rest of Oppé’s collection to the present owner, the Tate Gallery (T09244).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Tate, London, 1996, T09244
- Adolph Paul Oppé (1878 - 1957), London, 27 July 1910, GBP 25s, no.53
- Foster's auctioneers (1883 - 1940), 27 July 1910
Sold as a group with FT228, FT257, FT283, FT284, FT296, FT310, FT318, FT319, FT325, FT326, FT327, FT329, FT330, FT339, FT340, FT361, FT793 and a drawing by an unidentified pupil
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 148
Other entries in Small Sketchbook: Northern Italy, Switzerland, Savoy and Germany, August and September 1781
Francis Towne
A View of a Bridge Fifteen Miles from Florence on the Road to Bologna
A View of a Bridge Fifteen Miles from Florence on the Road to Bologna
Francis Towne
Le Rêve at the Head of Lake Como (Lago di Mezzola)
Le Rêve at the Head of Lake Como (Lago di Mezzola)
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Comment
This shows the mountain on the west shore of Lake Como just north of Menaggio. Possibly Towne drew the view from Menaggio, otherwise on the boat between that town and Bellagio.
Towne’s use of the phrase “drawn from Nature” is an unusual deviation from his more normal “on the spot”.