Francis Towne

Francis Towne (1739 – 7 July 1816) was a British watercolour painter of landscapes that range from the English Lake District to Naples and Rome.

His works from this trip include over 200 sheets, and 54 large views of Rome which emphasize the ancient ruins rather than the post-classical sights or the contemporary life of the city.

He painted versions of his watercolours, of Rome and elsewhere, in oils, mainly to submit to the Royal Academy, but though several were exhibited his eleven attempts from 1788 on to be elected a member all failed, and he gave up in 1803.

[4] He remained an obscure figure until the early 20th century,[5] 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,[6] "the taste of our own century for flat colourful pattern-making", as Andrew Wilton put it in 1993.