- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- Martinelli
- Date
- ca. 1780 - 1781
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and ink, washes
- Dimensions
-
- image width 216mm,
- image length 279mm
- Support
- paper watermarked with a fleur de lis design with the letters "GR"
- Inscription
-
- sheet, verso
- “Martinelly” and numbered “10”
- Object Type
- Monochrome wash
-
- Catalogue Number
- FT225
- Description Sources
- Author's examination of the object
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 (BP2), whereafter it is untraced (although as the Barton Place catalogue has no mention of its sale, it may well have been retained until Judith Merivale’s death). It was acquired by Lowell Libson from an auction at Stride & Sons, Chichester, in late 2010 and from its framing looked very much like it had been a Squire drawing; two other watercolours from Squire were also sold at the same auction.
- Associated People & Organisations
- Private Collection
- Lowell Libson, London, 2010
- Lowell Libson
- John Herman Merivale (1779 - 1844)
- Judith Ann Merivale (1860 - 1945)
- Maria Sophia Merivale (1853 - 1928)
- Private Collection
- Stride & Sons, Chichester
- James White (1744 - 1825)
- Exhibition History
- unidentified exhibition, British Museum, 1934, no. 299
- 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. 202
- Adrian Bury, 'Some Italian Views by Francis Towne', The Connoisseur, No. VLCII: London, 1938, p. 13
- Adrian Bury, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 126
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: “(2) Martinelly. [. . .] trees & one house. practically all washed with dark ind ink, no sky, two washes in places, sometimes 3. Very fine line everywhere. 8½ x 11 [216 x 279 mm]. Fleur de lys & GR.”1 The Barton Place catalogue calls this “Martinelli No10”. Another drawing of Martinelli’s house is numbered 10 in the Roman series (FT180).
Martinelli was a Roman landlord whose premises north-east of Rome were known by several British artists, including John Robert Cozens and Thomas Jones. See the Comment at FT180.