- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Going out from the Porta Pia, looking towards the Sabine Mountains
- Date
- 1781
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, blue/green and grey washes
- Dimensions
-
- image width 203mm,
- image length 267mm
- Support
- paper watermarked with a fleur de lis design within a shield and the letters "GR"
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “Rome, / Going from the Port of Pia, / looking towards the Sabine / mountains drawn / on the Spot 1781 / Francis Towne delt.”
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT226
- Description Sources
- Examination; 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 granddaughters Maria Sophia Merivale (1853–1928) and Judith Ann Merivale (1860–1945), both of Oxford, inherited the drawing in May 1915 (BP3). The Barton Place catalogue contains no record of its sale, so it may have been retained until Judith Merivale’s death. On 3 August 1945 Judith Merivale sold it to Agnew’s (no.4198) for £30 with FT604, FT612, FT614. Betweeen 1945 and 1950 it was acquired by Sir William Worsley, Bt (1890–1973); according to Christie’s in 2013, Worsley purchased it in November 1945 for 65 guineas. The drawing was sold by the estate of Sir Marcus Worsley, his son, on 2 July 2013, lot 34, for £10,000.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection, 2 July 2013, GBP 10000
- Christie's, London, London, 2 July 2013, lot 34
- Sir William Worsley (1890 - 1973), November 1945, 65 guineas
- Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 3 August 1945, GBP 30, no.4198
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945), Oxford, May 1915, BP3
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928), Oxford, May 1915, BP3
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844), 1825
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Watercolours by Francis Towne, City Art Gallery, 1950, no. 17
- English Watercolours from Four Yorkshire Houses 1660-1860, Scarborough Art Gallery, 1950, no. 12
- Three Centuries of British Water-colours, Arts Council, 1951, no. 191
- Early English Water Colours, Leeds City Art Gallery, 8 October 1958 to 23 November 1958, no. 100
- Bibliography
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 141
Other entries in Rome Series, October 1780–July 1781
Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia
Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana
Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara
Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese
A Sepulchre by the Road between Rome and the Ponte Nomentana
The Old Wall of Rome at the back of the Villa Medici
St Maria Nuova with the Temple of Venus and Rome
The Temple of Vesta and the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
Going out from the Porta Pia, looking towards the Sabine Mountains
Footnotes
- 1 Paul Oppé records: notes, ca. 1915.
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Comment
Paul Oppé’s note reads: “(3) same size [as BP2] from book. 1781 spot. Blue & browns, looser outline & shadows drank in with brush. Fleur de lys in shield GR. ‘Going from the Port of Pia.’”1 A drawing is listed in the Barton Place catalogue, after BP89, “On the road from Porta Pia Framed JAM”, which is probably this drawing or else another, uncatalogued here. This drawing is of a similar style, medium, and paper to the drawings made on the excursion to the Licenza valley (FT246, FT247, FT248, FT249, FT250), and it may well be that it was made on the same journey. Towne also travelled through the Porta Pia in north-east Rome when he sketched the Fossa della Ceccina in October 1780 (FT175).