- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Part of the Palatine Hill
- Date
- ca. 1781/02/09
- Medium
- Pencil, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 471mm,
- image length 321mm
- Support
- laid paper watermarked "WHATMAN"
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “F.Towne delt / Rome. No28”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.28. / Part of the Palatine mount. Feby 9th 1781 [the date over scratched-out “Feby 8th 1781”] from 10 till 12 O Clock / Rome Francis Towne. delt.”
- in brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.2)
- Catalogue Number
- FT198
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the object
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.1.02).
- 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. 174, 175, 176, 177 or 178 as On the Palatine Mount
- 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, pp. 76, 125
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 110
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
The subject of this drawing cannot be identified with complete certainty, but it seems likely that it depicts a detail of the ruined Severan arcades at the southern end of the Palatine Hill. The arcades can be seen in the background of FT199. Like Towne’s Colosseum views (for example FT192, FT195), this shows an awareness of Piranesi’s etchings of top-lit ruins with overgrowth and fallen masonry.