- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Tivoli
- A distant view of Tivoli
- Date
- 1781/04/26
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with gum
- Dimensions
-
- image width 248mm,
- image length 393mm
- Support
- wove paper
- Mount
- mounted by the artist on paper watermarked "J WHATMAN 1794"
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “F.Towne / delt. 1781”
- in brown ink, save the year, which is in black ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Italy / No.8 / Tivoli / drawn on the Spot / by Francis Towne / [“April 26th 1781” scratched out] 1781”
- all in brown ink, save the year which is in dark brown ink
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,2.16)
- Catalogue Number
- FT253
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825) and given by him in 1816 to the present owner, the British Museum (Nn.2.16).
- Associated People & Organisations
- British Museum, London, 1816, Nn,2.16
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- British Artists in Europe, Whitworth Art Gallery, 1973, no. 8
- British Artists in Rome 1700-1800, Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House, 1974, no. 141
- 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
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 112
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 57
Other entries in Italy Series, April to June 1781
Francis Towne
Thirteen Miles on the Road from Rome to Tivoli
Thirteen Miles on the Road from Rome to Tivoli
Francis Towne
A View of Rocca di Papa with Part of the Convent
A View of Rocca di Papa with Part of the Convent
Francis Towne
A View of the Spot where Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
A View of the Spot where Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
Francis Towne
A View of the Spot from which Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
A View of the Spot from which Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
Francis Towne
Monte Porzio Catone from the Park of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati
Monte Porzio Catone from the Park of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati
Francis Towne
Blasted Pine Tree in the Villa Mondragone, Frascati
Blasted Pine Tree in the Villa Mondragone, Frascati
Footnotes
- 1 Wilcox 1997, p.57.
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Comment
This shows broadly the same scene as FT252. Wilcox stated that the earliest Tivoli view was 1 May (meaning FT257), but Towne dated this a few days before.1 The dark colours, the use of gum and the neat watercolour and ink hatchings all point to significant workings long after 1781. Towne’s fingerprints are evident in the top-centre edge of the sky.