Waterfall between Chiavenna and Mount Splügen (1784): Art, History and Details

Waterfall between Chiavenna and Mount Splügen (1784) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Francis Towne (British, 1739/40–1816).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Waterfall between Chiavenna and Mount Splügen
• Date: 1784
• Creator attribution: Francis Towne (British, 1739/40–1816)
• Culture: England, 18th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: 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.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2012.35

A detail from the museum

This drawing once belonged to Paul Oppé, one of Britain's most esteemed art historians and a legendary authority on English drawings.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Oppé, A. P. "Francis Towne, Landscape Painter." Walpole Society 8 (1920).
• Exhibition of Works from the Paul Oppé Collection; English Watercolours and Old Master Drawings. Exh. Cat. London: Royal Academy, 1958.
• Bury, Adrian. Francis Towne: Lone Star of Water-Colour Painting. London: C. Skilton, 1962.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.