- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Old Wall of Rome at the back of the Villa Medici
- The Walls of Rome, looking towards the Medici Gardens
- Date
- 1781/07/03
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour, gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 319mm,
- image length 474mm
- Support
- the paper has a watermark with a fleur-de-lis design and has a vertical crease down its centre
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower centre
- “F.Towne / delt. 1781 / No34”
- in dark brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Rome No.34 / The old Wall of Rome at the back / of the Villa Medici. / drawn on the Spot by / Francis Towne [“July 3rd. 1781.” scratched out]”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.8)
- Catalogue Number
- FT204
- 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.1.8).
- 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. 157 as 'The Walls of Rome, looking towards the Medici Gardens'
- 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. 111
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 56
Footnotes
- 1 For Wright of Derby’s treatment, ca. 1773–75, see Nicolson 1968.
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