- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Waterfall at Tivoli
- Date
- 1790
- Medium
- Pencil, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 635mm,
- image length 432mm
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower right
- “F.Towne / 1790”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT562
- Description Sources
- The owner from 1984; Christie’s records (image)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), on whose death it passed to Towne’s residuary legatee John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) and his successors. Merivale’s grandson Revd Mortimer Drury Buckingham (b.1856) inherited the work ca. 1915. It is possible that he passed it to his nephew William Trevelyan Turner (b.1892), since Bury 1962 (and Worsley 1963, following Bury) states that the drawing was commissioned by a Mr Turner—Bury may have been unaware of Turner’s Merivale connection and imagined him to be the descendant of the commissioner. It was on sale at Walker’s Gallery in 1945, around which time it was bought by Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973), whose family sold it at Christie’s on 20 November 1984, lot 75. It was bought by Colnaghi, who sold it in the US to Felix Fabrizio, whose estate offered it for sale at Christie’s, London, on 10 December 2008, lot 18, where it failed to sell.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection
- Christie's, London, London, 10 December 2008, lot 18
Unsold - Felix Fabrizio, December 2008
- P&D Colnaghi & Co, London, 20 November 1984
- Christie's, London, London, 20 November 1984, lot 75
- Sir William Worsley (1890 - 1973), 1945
- Walker's Galleries, London, 1945
- [?] William Trevelyan Turner
- Mortimer Drury Buckingham (ca. 1857), 1915
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- [?] Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 191 as 'The falls of the Anio at Tivoli'
- [?] The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, Royal Academy of Arts, 1808, no. 396 as 'The Cascade at Tivoli'
- The 41st annual exhibition of early English and other water-colours, Walker's Gallery, 1945, no. 87
- Watercolours by Francis Towne, City Art Gallery, 1950, no. 13
- English Drawings and Watercolours, Colnaghi, 1985, no. 44
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 142
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, pp. 122-123
- Sir William Worsley, Early English Water-Colours at Hovingham Hall: 1963, p. 11
Other entries in Studio Watercolours, 1783–1800
Much Wenlock, Shropshire, with the Ruins of the Priory Church
The Wrekin, on the Road between Much Wenlock and Shrewsbury
A View going from the Head of Lake Como over Mount Splugen
The Campagna near Rome looking towards the Sabine Mountains
A View of Loreto with Part of the Adriatic Sea
A View near the Arco Scuro Looking towards the Villa Medici
An Evening View from Mount Palatine looking towards Mount Aventine
A View on the Banks of the Tiber near Monte Milvio
A View of the Temple of Venus looking towards the Island of Nisida
Chateau de Glerolles, near Vevey on Lake Geneva
Abbey Valley Crucis, near Llangollen on the River Dee, North Wales
A View on the Banks of the Dee above Llangollen
A View of the Bay of Naples with the Island of Capri
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Comment
Towne uses the same viewpoint as John “Warwick” Smith in his Select Views, showing the influence of Gaspar Dughet (via the 1744 engraving by J. Mason). No study for Towne’s watercolour is known, although as FT270 has not been photographed, that cannot be discounted as the source.
For Towne’s British Institution exhibits of 1808 see FT618, FT645, and FT645a. Towne’s address in the exhibition catalogue was given as 39 Queen Anne Street West.
This may well be the watercolour that Towne mentioned in a codicil of 1816 as hanging in his fore parlour at 31 Devonshire Street.