- Description
-
- Creator
- Francis Towne (1739 - 1816)
- Title(s)
-
- The Grand Cascade, Tivoli
- Tivoli from below the falls, with the Temple of Vesta
- Date
- 1781/05/15
- Medium
- Pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour
- Dimensions
-
- image width 504mm,
- image length 389mm
- Mount
- mounted by the artist
- Inscription
-
- sheet, recto, lower left
- “No.22 / F Towne delt / 1781”
- in brown ink
- Inscription
-
- artist's mount, verso
- “Italy / No.22 / Tivoli F.Towne delt / May 15th. 1781 / from 3 o clock till 6”
- Object Type
- Watercolour
-
- Collection
-
- (Nn,3.6)
- Catalogue Number
- FT261
- Description Sources
- Examination; 1996 Tate catalogue (image)
Provenance
Bequeathed by the artist in 1816 to James White of Exeter (1744–1825), who gave it in 1818 to the present owner, the British Museum (Nn.3.6).
- Associated People & Organisations
- British Museum, London, 1816, Nn,3.6
- James White (1744 - 1825), Exeter, 1816
- Exhibition History
- Gaspard Dughet called Gaspar Poussin 1615-75: A French landscape painter in seventeenth century Rome and his influence on British Art', Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood House, 1980, no. 77
- unidentified exhibition, British Museum, 1981
- Travels in Italy 1776-1783 based on the Memoirs of Thomas Jones, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 1988, no. 53
- Grand Tour: the Lure of Italy in the Eighteenth Century, Tate Gallery, 1996, no. 113
- Light, time, legacy: Francis Towne’s watercolours of Rome, British Museum, 2016
- 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, Francis Towne - Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting, Charles Skilton: London, 1962, p. 127
- Martin Hardie, Water-Colour Painting in Britain, ed. Dudley Snelgrove, London: B. T. Batsford, 1966, p. 121
- Timothy Wilcox, Francis Towne, Tate Publishing: London, 1997, p. 77
Other entries in Italy Series, April to June 1781
Francis Towne
Thirteen Miles on the Road from Rome to Tivoli
Thirteen Miles on the Road from Rome to Tivoli
Francis Towne
A View of Rocca di Papa with Part of the Convent
A View of Rocca di Papa with Part of the Convent
Francis Towne
A View of the Spot where Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
A View of the Spot where Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
Francis Towne
A View of the Spot from which Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
A View of the Spot from which Hannibal is said to have looked at Rome
Francis Towne
Monte Porzio Catone from the Park of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati
Monte Porzio Catone from the Park of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati
Francis Towne
Blasted Pine Tree in the Villa Mondragone, Frascati
Blasted Pine Tree in the Villa Mondragone, Frascati
Footnotes
- 1 Thomas Jones, The Grand Cascade, Tivoli, ca. 1777 (Sumner & Smith 2003); J. Emes after John “Warwick” Smith, The Grand Cascade, Tivoli, 1792 (National Art Library)]; Jacob More, The Grand Cascade, Tivoli, ca. 1785 (Andrew 1993); Thomas Smith, The Grand Cascade, Tivoli, ca. 1780–95 (1793 Manning & Albany exhibition catalogue).
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Comment
This is a view of the grand cascade of Tivoli from the bottom of the gorge, at the north-east corner of the town, a position made popular by Gaspar Dughet’s picture engraved with its pendant by J. Mason in 1744. Of Towne’s circle the view was drawn by Thomas Jones, John “Warwick” Smith, Jacob More, and Thomas Smith.1
As well as this afternoon drawing, on 15 May Towne drew a sketch at 5 o’clock in the morning (FT258).