- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Claudian Aqueduct
- The Claudian Aqueduct, near the Arch of Constantine, looking towards the Palatine
- Date
- 1781/02/16
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 324mm,
- image length 472mm
- Support
- laid paper
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “F.Towne. delt / Rome No.29”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No.29 / Claudian Aqueduct taken near the Arch of Constantine / looking towards the Palatine mount [“Febry 16th, 1781” scratched out] from 10 till 12 O Clock / Rome Francis Towne. delt. / It run 38 miles and sunk after the / Proportion of five foot & a half every mile / by the advantage of a high source & the low Situation of Rome / Mrs. J. Fortestcue, Buckland House. Devon / a Copy of this. [“1786” scratched out]”
- all in brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.3)
- Catalogue Number
- FT199
- 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.1.03).
- 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. 172 as 'Claudian Aqueduct'
- British Watercolours A Golden Age 1750-1850, J.B. Speed Art Museum, 1977
- British Landscape Watercolours 1600-1860 at the British Museum, British Museum, 1985, no. 35
- 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. 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
Footnotes
- 1 G. B. Piranesi, Claudian Aqueduct, ca. 1756 (Ficacci 2000).
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Comment
The Claudian Aqueduct is situated on the edge of the Palatine Hill and is visible in FT183, drawn on the hill. Towne has adopted the same viewpoint as Piranesi’s print of ca. 1756.1
Towne made at least two copies of this drawing, one for the Snows of Cleve dated 1785 (FT428) and another for Mrs Fortescue (FT429), perhaps finished in 1786.