- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Near the Arco Oscuro
- Date
- 1781/05/07
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 227mm,
- image length 322mm
- Support
- laid paper, with an indistinct watermark
- Mount
- mounted by the artist on paper watermarked 'WHATMAN'
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne delt. Rome / May 7. 1781 No38”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.38 / Near the Arco scuro [indistinct date scratched out] / Francis Towne delt. May 7h. 1781 [the date in dark brown ink] from 11 till 1 O Clock / Rome.”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.11)
- Catalogue Number
- FT208
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
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.1.11).
- 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. 154, 155 or 156 as 'Near the Arco Oscuro'
- unidentified exhibition, British Museum, 1981
- 'A Noble Art' - Amateur Artists and Drawing Masters c.1600-1800, British Museum, 2000, no. 135
- 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. 201
- 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. 158
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
Footnotes
- 1 British Museum, 1981,0516.18.5.
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Comment
William Pars also drew this view, which probably shows part of Villa Giulia or Villa Giustiani. Other drawings made in the vicinity are FT184, FT185, FT187, FT188, and FT211. A sketch by Thomas Jones of these buildings, dated 4 March 1777, is inscribed “Near the Borghese Park”.1
There is an echo of the wall and building here in the drawing that Towne made for a pupil to copy in 1793 (FT900).