FRANCIS TOWNE
(1740-1816)

 

The Colosseum from the Caelian Hills

1799

watercolour with pen and black ink

over pencil on paper,

image size 31.3 x 46.5 cm

inscribed: F. Towne 1799

inscribed on the mount: Rôme The Coloses, with the Baths of Titus, & Arch of Constantine, taken from the Palatine Mount. Francis Towne del ^t 1799

P.96

The arch of Constantine can be seen on the left. Towne visited Italy in 1780-81, arriving in Rome in October 1780. During the next five months he made a number of  studies of the Colosseum emphasizing its combination of splendour and decay, sometimes concentrating on architectural details, at others, as here, on its grandeur as seen from a distance. During his stay he would have met PARS who had lived in Rome since 1775 and who was a life-long friend.      

Back in England he used his Italian sketchbooks as the basis for finished watercolours and a few oils, but he never received any recognition in his lifetime and was passed over four times for election to the R.A. It was only between the wars, due to the championship of Paul Oppé and other collectors, that Towne began to be recognized as a major watercolourist.       

Adrian Bury describes this as 'among the memorable drawings done in the 1790s'.

EJ

PROVENANCE: Champernowne family, Devonshire neighbours of Towne's at Dartington Hall; Mrs K.J. Paull, Chichester, sale Sotheby's bought Thos. Agnew's & Sons Ltd, from whom purchased by Gallery, January 1953.

EXHIBITIONS: English Watercolours from the Hickman Bacon and other Collections, Bedford, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, 1952, no.70, lent by Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd; English Watercolours 1750 ‑ 1850, Norwich, Castle Museum, 1955, no.16; Primitives to Picasso, London, Royal Academy, 1962, no.362; Watercolours and Drawings from the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, Thos. Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1962, no.14; English Watercolours from the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Reading, Reading Museum & Art Gallery, 1965, no.53; Watercolours from Bedford, Norwich, Castle Museum, 1965, no.56, as The Colosseum from the Caelian Hill with the Arch of Constantine on the left; Art Treasures of England The Regional Collections, London, Royal Academy, 1998, no.212.

REFERENCES: A. Bury, 'The Cecil Higgins Museum Bedford', Old Watercolour Society’s Club, 1961, vol. no.xxxvi, p.35, pl.xv; A. Bury Francis Towne: Lone Star of Water-colour Painting, 1962, p.103, pl.xv.

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.