- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Le Rêve at the Head of Lake Como (Lago di Mezzola)
- Date
- ca. 1781
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and brown and grey inks, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 156mm,
- image length 212mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist on paper watermarked “CURTEIS & SON” and made ca. 1795 by William Curteis of Carshalton Mill, Surrey
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “No 33 / F.Towne / delt. 1781”
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “No. 33 / Le Revê at the Head of the Lake of Como / drawn by Francis Towne / August the 28th. 1781.”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (T08557)
- Catalogue Number
- FT326
- Description Sources
- Examination; Museum records (image); Bower 1998
Provenance
Untraced until sold anonymously at Foster’s on 27 July 1910, lot 151 FT228, FT257, FT283, FT284, FT296, FT310, FT318, FT319, FT325, FT326, FT327, FT329, FT330, FT339, FT340, FT361, FT793, FT862) for 25s. to Paul Oppé (1878–1957; no.46), whose descendants sold it in 1996 with the rest of Oppé’s collection to the current owner, the Tate Gallery (T08557).
- Associated People & Organisations
- Tate, London, 1996, T08557
- Adolph Paul Oppé (1878 - 1957), London, 27 July 1910, GBP 25s, no.46
- Foster's auctioneers (1883 - 1940), 27 July 1910, GBP 25s, lot 151
Sold as a group with FT228, FT257, FT283, FT284, FT296, FT310, FT318, FT319, FT325, FT326, FT327, FT329, FT330, FT339, FT340, FT361, FT793 and a drawing by an unidentified pupil
- Exhibition History
- Exhibition of Original Drawings at the Gallery, No.20 Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, 20 Lower Brook Street, 1805, no. 127 as 'Le Reve at the head of the Lake of Como'
- Catalogue of a collection of pictures, drawings, furniture and works of art of the Empire and Regency period : select examples of Romano-British art, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1929, no. 3
- Loan Exhibition of Water-Colour Drawings by Francis Towne (1740-1816) The property of A.P. Oppe Esq. C.B., Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1949, no. 9
- Early English Drawings and Watercolours from the Collection of Paul Oppe Esq., Graves Art Gallery, 1952, no. 68
- L'Aquarelle anglaise 1750-1850, [organised by the British Council at] Musee Rath, Geneva; L'Ecole Polytechnique Federale, Zurich, 1955, no. 111
- Exhibition of Works from The Paul Oppe Collection, Royal Academy, 1958, no. 79
- Bibliography
- Peter Bower, 'Drawing Paper in the 18th and 19th centuries: Papers from the Opp_ Collection, part 2', The Quarterly Journal of the British Association of Paper Historians: [?] London, 1998, p. 19
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, pp. 96, 144
- Paul Oppé, 'Francis Towne, Landscape Painter', The Walpole Society: London, 1920, p. 117
Other entries in Small Sketchbook: Northern Italy, Switzerland, Savoy and Germany, August and September 1781
Francis Towne
A View of a Bridge Fifteen Miles from Florence on the Road to Bologna
A View of a Bridge Fifteen Miles from Florence on the Road to Bologna
Francis Towne
Le Rêve at the Head of Lake Como (Lago di Mezzola)
Le Rêve at the Head of Lake Como (Lago di Mezzola)
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Comment
This is a view of the Lago di Mezzola, just north of Lake Como (see the Comment at FT325). The pale mass on the left is Monte Berlinghera, and Monte Avedée (presumably “Le Revê” of Towne’s inscription) is in the centre and right. Behind both, on the left, is the Pizzo di Prata.