An extensive landscape with a castle and drovers beneath a hill town, Italy

When the present watercolour was with Leger Galleries in 1978, it was dated to circa 1781, which places its execution either during or shortly after Towne's Italian tour. He arrived in Rome in October 1780, having travelled via Geneva, and remained in the city during the winter. When spring came, he travelled on to Naples, arriving there on 8 March 1781, and was guided around the city by his fellow British landscape painter Thomas Jones (1742-1803). By May Towne had returned to the countryside around Rome, where he executed a number of views of Tivoli, such as that now in the British Museum (1972, U.621). At the end of August, he and his travelling companion John 'Warwick' Smith (1749-1831) arrived in the region of the Italian Lakes. Although the landscape in this charming roundel has not been identified, it is very probably a view either in the Roman campagna or in the vicinity of Lugano to the north. Its delicate execution and subtle colours combine to make it a fine example of Towne's work on this continental tour.

We are grateful to Timothy Wilcox for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.