- Description
-
- Title(s)
-
- Modern Bridge at Narni
- Date
- 1795
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour, gum
- Dimensions
-
- image height 213mm,
- image length 300mm
- Support
- laid paper with a fleur-de-lis watermark
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne delt 1795”
- in dark brown ink
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower centre
- “Modern Bridge at Narni”
- below the image, in brown ink over traces of pencil
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
- Catalogue Number
- FT799
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), on whose death it passed to Towne’s residuary legatee John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) and his successors. Merivale’s granddaughter Emily Harriet Buckingham (b.1853) inherited the drawing in 1915 and sold it early in 1923 to Thomas Girtin (1874/1875–1960). In February 1970 the drawing was with John Baskett, who sold it to Paul Mellon (1907–1999), who gave it to the present owner, the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (B1975.3.936; gift to Yale, December 1975).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, December 1975, B1975.3.936
- Mr Paul Mellon (1907 - 1999), February 1970
- John Baskett (1907), February 1970
- Thomas Girtin (1874/75 - 1960), 1923
- Emily Harriet Buckingham (1853 - 1923), 1915
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- The Girtin Collection, Royal Academy, 1962, no. 3
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 103, 148
Other entries in Compositions and Copies, 1782–95
Francis Towne, Claude Lorrain
A Memory of Lord Ashburnham’s Claude
A Memory of Lord Ashburnham’s Claude
Francis Towne, Rosa Salvator
Study in the Style of Salvator Rosa
Study in the Style of Salvator Rosa
Francis Towne, Rosa Salvator
Study in the Style of Salvator Rosa
Study in the Style of Salvator Rosa
Francis Towne, Rosa Salvator
Study in the Style of Salvator Rosa
Study in the Style of Salvator Rosa
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Comment
This drawing is a version of figure 1.
Towne’s version was presumably made for his work as a drawing master, and a copy is known by one of his pupils, Lady Trelawny, dated 7 May 1804 (FT895b). Towne’s foliage, for example in the bottom left and right, is much neater than usual, and he has employed short dabbed hatchings with the brush that are rarely seen in his work but are close to “Warwick” Smith’s style.
Figure 1.
B. T. Pouncey after John “Warwick” Smith, Modern Bridge at Narni, circa 1792
Digital image courtesy of National Art Library