Temple of Bacchus in the distance

Description

Creator: Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)

Title(s)

Temple of Bacchus in the Distance
View outside Rome

Date: 1780/10

Medium: Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with gum

Dimensions

image width 228mm,
image length 325mm

Support: laid paper with an indistinct watermark

Mount: mounted by the artist

Inscription

sheet, recto, lower left
“F Towne / delt / 1780”
in dark brown ink

Inscription

artist's mount, verso
“No.7. Temple of Bacchus in the distance [“Oct [. . .] 1780” scratched out] / Rome, Francis Towne delt. from 10 O Clock till 2. / 1780[in dark brown ink]”

Object Type: Watercolour

Collection

(Nn.2.07)

Catalogue Number: FT177

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.2.07).

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. 140 or 141 as 'Temple of Bacchus in the middle distance'; 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. 199; Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 123

Comment

This is a countryside view on the Via Nomentana, showing the Appenine Mountains and the Church of S. Agnese fuori della Mura in the distance. Towne also made a closer view of the church, in whose ground the so-called Temple of Bacchus stood (FT178).

by Richard Stephens

Other entries in Rome Series, October 1780–July 1781

Francis Towne

Inside the Colosseum 1780

Inside the Colosseum

Francis Towne

A View on the Banks of the Tiber 1780

A View on the Banks of the Tiber

Francis Towne

On the Banks of the Tiber near Ponte Molle 1780

On the Banks of the Tiber near Ponte Molle

Francis Towne

On the Banks of the Tiber near Ponte Molle 1780

On the Banks of the Tiber near Ponte Molle

Francis Towne

Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia 1780

Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia

Francis Towne

Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana 1780

Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana

Francis Towne