Francis Towne - part 2

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:

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

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

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

1777 The Vale of the Dee below Llangollen
pen and ink, watercolour 30.5 x 48.3 cm
Private Collection

1777 The West Front of Tintern Abbey
pen and grey ink, watercolour 29 x 37 cm
Chepstow Museum and Art Gallery

1777 The Wrekin
watercolour 21.6 x 27.4 cm
Private Collection (All Rights Reserved)

1777 Valle Crucis Abbey
pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour, gum 30 x 48.3 cm
National Museum Wales, Cardiff

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

1777 Wenlock Priory
pen and ink, watercolour 21.6 x 27.9 cm
Musuems Sheffield, UK (All Rights Reserved)

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

c1777 Wenlock Priory
pen and ink, monochrome wash 26.7 x 34.9 cm
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino

1778 A View at Pynes
pencil, pen and grey ink, brown wash 27.1 x 37.2 cm
Tate, London

1778 In Peamore Park
pen and grey ink, watercolour 27.9 x 41.9 cm
Private Collection

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 

c1778-1880 Oakhampton Castle
pen and grey ink, grey wash
Private Collection

1779 A View near Exwell looking towards Topsham
pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 45.7 x 66 cm

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 

1779 Werrington Park
pen and brown and black inks, grey and brown washes
33.6 x 48.2 cm
Private Collection

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

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

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

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

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

1780 Aiguebelle in Savoy
pen and grey ink, watercolour, scratching out 21 x 26.5 cm

1780 From the Palatine Hill
pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 31.7 x 47.2 cm
The British Museum, London

1780 Haldon Hall
oil on canvas 80 x 125.7 cm
Tate, London

1780 Inside the Colosseum
pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 31.8 x 47.1 cm
The British Museum, London

1780 Inside the Colosseum
pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 31.9 x 47.3 cm
The British Museum, London

1780 Inside the Colosseum
pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 47.1 x 31.9 cm
The British Museum, London

1780 Landscape at 'Morrill'
oil on canvas 38.7 x 51.1 cm
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK

1780 Landscape Composition
pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 13.8 x 19 cm
Tate, London

1780 Looking towards Newton
oil on canvas 80.6 x 114.3 cm
Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, Leicestershire, UK

1780 Lower Water, Ugbrooke Park
pen and black ink, grey wash 38.1 x 54 cm
Private Collection

1780 Near the Arco Oscuro
pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 31.9 x 47 cm
The British Museum, London

1780 Near the Arco Oscuro
pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour 32 x 47.2 cm
The British Museum, London

1780 Near the Arco Oscuro
pencil, pen and light and dark grey inks, watercolour
 47.1 x 31.4 cm
The British Museum, London

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

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

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

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

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

1780 Tarpeian Rock
pen and watercolour 32 x 47.2 cm
The British Museum, London

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

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

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

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

1780 Ugbrooke Park
oil on wood 50.8 x 69.9 cm
Private Collection

1780 Ugbrooke Park
oil on wood 50.8 x 69.9 cm

1780 Ugbrooke Park
pen and black ink, grey wash 37.5 x 54 cm
Private Collection

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

c1780-81 Landscape Fragment
pencil, watercolour 32.4 x 13.9 cm
The British Museum, London

c1780-81 Martinelli
pencil, pen and ink, washes 21.6 x 27.9 cm

c1780-81 Walls of Rome
pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour 15.3 x 21.1 cm
Tate, London

1780-89 Going into the Villa Ludovisi
pencil, pen and black ink, watercolour 46.4 x 32.2 cm
The British Museum, London

c1780-90 A Waterfall near Lidford
pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour 27.7 x 20.3 cm
Tate, London

c1780-90 Donkey near Exminster
pen and ink, watercolour 12.7 x 19.7 cm
The Huntingdon Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

c1780-90 Landscape with Ruin
pencil, pen and brown ink, watercolour 21.6 x 26.4 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

c1780-90 Lidford
pen and grey ink, watercolour 25.7 x 17.8 cm

c1780-90 Near Glarus
pencil, watercolour, gum 30.7 x 23.4 cm
Private Collection

c1780-90 Tree Study
pencil, pen and light and dark brown inks 15.7 x 9.1 cm

c1780-90 Underneath Knowle Hill
pencil, pen and grey ink, watercolour
Private Collection