- Museum number
- Nn,1.14
- Description
-
St Peter's at sunset, from above the Arco Oscuro, formerly part of an album; rocks and trees in right foreground, looking down towards St Peter's in distant left, road leading from left foreground to centre. 1781
Pen and black ink and grey wash with watercolour and some gum arabic
- Production date
- 1781
- Dimensions
-
Height: 320 millimetres
-
Width: 467 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- From album NN,01.1-25
See Nn,1.1 for information about the Towne albums as a whole.
T. Wilcox, Francis Towne, London 1997
Towne's almost complete avoidance of any subjects associated with modern Rome was relaxed on this one occasion. The city's most conspicuous landmark had figured in numerous paintings by Wilson and also, more recently, by William Marlow, who returned from Italy in 1768 and exhibited views of Rome featuring St Peter's at the Society of Artists and later at the Royal Academy; Towne may have decided to make this view with its future potential in a similar market uppermost in mind. Although he did not execute any later copies in watercolour, he did exhibit 'A View of St Peter's', Rome at the Royal Academy in 1794, when he was renewing his efforts for election as an Associate. The view, from above the Arco Oscuro, which had been a favourite haunt during Towne's first weeks in Rome, was one also painted, with some success, by William Pars; two signed watercolours of a similar view exist, one in Birmingham dated 1776 and one in the Victoria and Albert Museum dated 177 [?], both based on a looser study in a private collection (see Manchester 1988, no. 17).
Towne's decision to depict the scene at sunset, rather than in the brilliance of the summer heat, as he was doing for classical buildings at this time, may be symbolic, a personal reflection on the Church of Rome; with less detail in the architecture and a display of warm colour, enriched by gum, in the foreground, he does shift the focus of interest away from the main subject towards an appreciation of the subtleties of the waning light. In the clear sky Towne has washed yellow gradually into blue, an effect he was to repeat only in 'The View from the Palatine Mount', numbered '40', featuring the Pyramid of Caius Cestius. Such an obvious and apparently simple technique, which entailed working with two wet colours at once, was almost unheard of in watercolour at this date. The only other artist who practised it with any regularity was J. R. Cozens. This sheet by Towne demonstrates that Cozens was not alone during this period in his pursuit of 'atmosphere', nor alone in forging a new painterly language to create a wider range of expressive effects in watercolour.
The following label was written by Richard Stephens for the Towne exhibition in 2016:
This was a very popular compositional view (several versions survive by William Pars), and had been used by British painters ever since Richard Wilson made a painting from this spot in 1753.
Towne's mount is watermarked with the year 1794 and his inscription mentions a pillar of oriental jasper that was in the Vatican library, a fact he took from Addison's Remarks on Several Parts of Italy (1705), which was probably the most popular item of travel literature 18th century British visitors took to Rome. Later in the 1780s Towne showed his watercolours of Rome to an Exeter author who wrote a letter of thanks for 'the Pleasure I rec'd from yr Views of Rome... and from my Delight in finding myself in Old Rome by the text & comment of yr Pencil.' The author apologised that he had 'declined entering into that historical Investigation you might have expected'. Towne's inscriptions provide clues about the kinds of 'historical investigations' he liked to instigate while showing his watercolours.
For other views near the Arco Oscuro by Towne see Nn,1.11, Nn,2.21, Nn,2.20, Nn,2.24 and Nn,2.23.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1988 Oct-Dec, Manchester, Whitworth AG, Travels in Italy, no. 22
1997 June-Sep, London, Tate Gallery, Francis Towne
1997/8 Oct-Jan, Leeds CAG, Francis Towne
2016 Jan-Aug, BM, 'Light, Time, Legacy: Francis Towne's watercolours of Rome' (no catalogue)
- Condition
- Laid down in artist's original wash-lined mount.
- Acquisition date
- 1816
- Acquisition notes
- T. Wilcox, Francis Towne, London 1997
Donated, in accordance with the artist's wishes, by his executor, James White, and "with the concurrence of J. H. Merivale" 1816
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Nn,1.14
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: 1972,U.632
