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Waterfall between Chiavenna and Mount Splügen
About the Artwork
Francis Towne spent a year painting the architectural wonders of Rome and its environs on what was to be his only trip to the Continent. On the journey back to England, he traveled over the Alps, visiting the Italian Lakes, crossing over the Splügen Pass into Switzerland, finally arriving in Geneva. His distinctive style, characterized by an austere simplicity of vision, found its fullest expression in his Alpine views, described by one scholar as "unquestionably among the greatest by any 18th-century artist of mountain scenery." Against the earth tones of the brooding cliffs, the crash of the waterfall is like a white explosion.
Inscriptions
signed and dated, in pen and brown ink, at lower left: Francis Towne / dell. 1784
Provenance
?-?: Lord Redesdale 1919: (sale, Bruton Knowles & Co., May 2, 1919, no. 629) after 1919-before 1982: Adolph Paul Oppé [1878-1957], London, by descent 1982: (sale, Sotheby's, London, November 11, 1982, no. 59) after 1982-before 2006: (Morton-Morris and Co., London) before 2006-before 2012: Joseph and Deborah Goldyne, San Francisco, CA after 2006-by 2012: (Addison Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH) 2012-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Francis Towne (British, 1739/40–1816)
- Date
- 1784
- Medium
- watercolor with graphite, point of brushwork, and selective glazing
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 47.3 x 56.8 cm (18 5/8 x 22 3/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Accession no.
- 2012.35
More by Francis Towne in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011088
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