Francis Towne (1739 - 1816) was born in Isleworth, Middlesex. In 1752 he was apprenticed to a leading coach painter in London, Thomas Brookshead. In 1759 he won a design prize from the Society of Arts, and studied for a while at St Martin’s Lane Academy. .In 1763 Towne was employed by a coach painter called Thomas Watson in Long Acre, and went to Exeter on business, where he soon settled. He had already begun painting in oils and also taught drawing, and now he began to accept commissions from wealthy families in Devon. After a tour of north Wales in 1777 he began to specialise in watercolours.
He remained an obscure figure until the early 20th century, so that the collector Paul Oppé was able to acquire numbers of important works very cheaply. Oppé was greatly impressed, especially with Towne's elegant and somewhat stylised early manner, which chimed with trends in English painting at the time, "the taste of our own century for flat colourful pattern-making", as Andrew Wilton put it in 1993. After making contact with descendants of Towne's student and friend, John Herman Merivale, Oppé discovered a collection of largely unseen works which Towne had bequeathed to Merivale. He catalogued the works and published an article about the artist in a 1919 volume of the Walpole Society journal. These writings helped to create a revival of interest in Towne, and more works began to appear on the market. By the 1950s he was widely recognised as an important figure and his works were owned by many museums, especially the British Museum and the Yale Centre for British Art. A catalogue raisonné of the artist's work is published by the Paul Mellon Centra for Studies in British Art.
For more information on Towne’s life and works see part 1 also.
This is part 2 of 10 part series on the works of Francis Towne:
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| 1777 The Beginning of the Road on Penmaenmawr pen and ink, watercolour 14.6 x 30.2 cm Rhode Island Museum of Art, School of Design, Providence |
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| 1777 The Ruins of the Great Room in Ludlow Castle, Shopshire, where Milton’s Comus was Performed pen and ink, watercolour 15.9 x 19.7 cm Plymouth City Council (Arts and Heritage), UK |
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| 1777 The Vale of Tan y Bwlch pencil, pen and grey and black inks, grey wash 27.6 x 44 cm National Museum Wales, Cardiff |
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| 1777 The Vale of the Dee below Llangollen pen and ink, watercolour 30.5 x 48.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1777 The West Front of Tintern Abbey pen and grey ink, watercolour 29 x 37 cm Chepstow Museum and Art Gallery |
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| 1777 The Wrekin watercolour 21.6 x 27.4 cm Private Collection (All Rights Reserved) |
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| 1777 Valle Crucis Abbey pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour, gum 30 x 48.3 cm National Museum Wales, Cardiff |
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| 1777 View of a Mountain, (Perhaps near Aberddwlas) pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 22.3 x 27.8 cm Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, UK |
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| 1777 Wenlock Priory pen and ink, watercolour 21.6 x 27.9 cm Musuems Sheffield, UK (All Rights Reserved) |
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| c1777-83 The Wrekin, on the Road between Much Wenlock and Shrewsbury pencil, pen and grey ink, grey wash (?) x 36.6 cm Private Collection |
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| c1777 Wenlock Priory pen and ink, monochrome wash 26.7 x 34.9 cm The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino |
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| 1778 A View at Pynes pencil, pen and grey ink, brown wash 27.1 x 37.2 cm Tate, London |
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| 1778 In Peamore Park pen and grey ink, watercolour 27.9 x 41.9 cm Private Collection |
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| c1778-89 Looking towards Newton pencil, pen and grey and black inks, grey wash 35.4 x 57 cm The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London |
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| c1778-1880 Oakhampton Castle pen and grey ink, grey wash Private Collection |
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| 1779 A View near Exwell looking towards Topsham pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 45.7 x 66 cm |
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| 1779 Torre Abbey, Devon, the Seat of George Cary, Esq. pencil, pen and thin grey ink, watercolour 34 x 51.8 cm Rhode Island Museum of Art, School of Design, Providence |
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| 1779 Werrington Park pen and brown and black inks, grey and brown washes 33.6 x 48.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1780 A Sepulchre by the Road between Rome and the Ponte Nomentana pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 27.6 x 32.5 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 A View at Geneva near where the Arve falls into the Rhone pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour, gum 20.9 x 27 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 A View from Martinelli's Vineyard pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with gum 20.8 x 26.8 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 A View on the Banks of the Tiber pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 21.1 x 54.3 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 A View taken at Geneva where the Rhone comes from the Lake under the Bridge pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour, gum 20.8 x 27.2 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Aiguebelle in Savoy pen and grey ink, watercolour, scratching out 21 x 26.5 cm |
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| 1780 From the Palatine Hill pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 31.7 x 47.2 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Haldon Hall oil on canvas 80 x 125.7 cm Tate, London |
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| 1780 Inside the Colosseum pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 31.8 x 47.1 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Inside the Colosseum pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 31.9 x 47.3 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Inside the Colosseum pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 47.1 x 31.9 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Landscape at 'Morrill' oil on canvas 38.7 x 51.1 cm Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK |
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| 1780 Landscape Composition pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 13.8 x 19 cm Tate, London |
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| 1780 Looking towards Newton oil on canvas 80.6 x 114.3 cm Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, Leicestershire, UK |
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| 1780 Lower Water, Ugbrooke Park pen and black ink, grey wash 38.1 x 54 cm Private Collection |
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| 1780 Near the Arco Oscuro pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 31.9 x 47 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Near the Arco Oscuro pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 32 x 47.2 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Near the Arco Oscuro pencil, pen and light and dark grey inks, watercolour 47.1 x 31.4 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Near the Arco Scuro, looking into the Villa Borghese pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour with gum 32.8 x 30.4 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 On the Banks of the Tiber near Ponte Molle pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with gum 20.8 x 26.9 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 A View of the Waterfall at Lidford in the County of Devon pencil, pen and brown ink, grey wash 30.4 x 20.5 cm Tate, London |
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| 1780 On the Banks of the Tiber near Ponte Molle pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with touches of scratching out 20.5 x 40.2 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Part of the Ancient Roman Wall between Porta Salara and Porta Pinciana pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour with gum 20.7 x 27.1 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Tarpeian Rock pen and watercolour 32 x 47.2 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Temple of Bacchus in the Distance pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with gum 22.8 x 32.5 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Temple of Bacchus Two Miles from Rome pencil, pen and black in, watercolour with gum 22.9 x 32.1 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Two Miles from Rome going out at the Porta Pia pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 20.9 x 41.7 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Two Miles from Rome, going out at Porta Salara pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour with gum 20.8 x 26.7 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1780 Ugbrooke Park oil on wood 50.8 x 69.9 cm Private Collection |
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| 1780 Ugbrooke Park oil on wood 50.8 x 69.9 cm |
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| 1780 Ugbrooke Park pen and black ink, grey wash 37.5 x 54 cm Private Collection |
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| c1780-81 A View of Loreto with Part of the Adriatic Sea pen and grey ink, watercolour 31.5 x 47.2 cm Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford Museums & Galleries, UK |
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| c1780-81 Landscape Fragment pencil, watercolour 32.4 x 13.9 cm The British Museum, London |
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| c1780-81 Martinelli pencil, pen and ink, washes 21.6 x 27.9 cm |
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| c1780-81 Walls of Rome pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour 15.3 x 21.1 cm Tate, London |
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| 1780-89 Going into the Villa Ludovisi pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 46.4 x 32.2 cm The British Museum, London |
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| c1780-90 A Waterfall near Lidford pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour 27.7 x 20.3 cm Tate, London |
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| c1780-90 Donkey near Exminster pen and ink, watercolour 12.7 x 19.7 cm The Huntingdon Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens |
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| c1780-90 Landscape with Ruin pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour 21.6 x 26.4 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| c1780-90 Lidford pen and grey ink, watercolour 25.7 x 17.8 cm |
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| c1780-90 Near Glarus pencil, watercolour, gum 30.7 x 23.4 cm Private Collection |
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| c1780-90 Tree Study pencil, pen and light and dark brown inks 15.7 x 9.1 cm |
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| c1780-90 Underneath Knowle Hill pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour Private Collection |
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