- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese
- Date
- 1780/12/01
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour with gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 328mm,
- image length 304mm
- Support
- laid paper with a vertical crease around 60mm from its left edge
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “No.18 / F.Towne / delt 1780 / Rome”
- in brown ink partially obscured with white gouache
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.18 Rome / A View near the Arco scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese. /drawn by Francis Towne / [“Decr. 1st. 1780” scratched out] / The Villa Borghese lies a quarter of a mile from the Porta Pinciana, / & is entirely inclosed within a wall five Italian Miles in Circuit”
- in brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,2.24)
- Catalogue Number
- FT188
- 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.2.24).
- 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. 153 as 'Looking into the Villa and Borghese Park, taken near the Arco Oscuro'
- Francis Towne, Tate Gallery; Leeds City Art Gallery, 24 June 1997 - 4 January 1998, no. 20
- 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. 200
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 124
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
This is a view looking into the gardens of Villa Borghese, north of Rome. The road is probably the Muro Torto.
The colouring of the figures and, in the foreground bottom edge, the stones that are outlined in brown ink suggest a light reworking at a date much later than 1780. The whole shaded left foreground bush has been gone over in dark, gum-heavy, brown/black wash, which is probably a further indication that Towne tried to smarten up the work.