- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Temple of Romulus
- Temple of Romulus and Remus
- Date
- 1781/07/19
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and black and grey inks, watercolour with gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 352mm,
- image length 321mm
- Support
- laid paper watermarked "J WHATMAN", with a horizontal crease c.130mm below the top edge of the paper
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “No.48 / F.Towne / delt. 1781. Rome”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No48, Rome / Evening Sun from the right hand / Templum Romolo e Remo / drawn by / Francis Towne / [“July 19th. 1781” scratched out]”
- in brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,1.21)
- Catalogue Number
- FT218
- 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.1.21).
- 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. 160 as 'Temple of Romulus and Remus'
- 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. 202
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 126
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 James Gandon after Richard Wilson, Temple of Romulus, ca. 1776.
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Comment
The so-called Temple of Romulus is beside the Palatine Hill, whose northern edge is visible in the left of Towne’s picture. As with FT212, Towne has introduced a shepherd and his flock. The layered foreground was probably finished much later than the sketch, perhaps to render it suitable for exhibition in 1805.
Towne had in mind Richard Wilson’s view of this monument, a version of which Towne appears to have drawn for his pupils to copy (see FT863).1