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The Townley Collection of the British Museum

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The Townley Collection of the British Museum Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2016 Collectors & Collections: classical to contemporary The Townley Collection of the British Museum Dr Christopher Allen 9/10 March 2016 Lecture summary: Charles Townley, the son of a wealthy Catholic family, became the most famous collector of antiquities in Britain in the last years of the 18th century. He made three trips to Italy – in 1768, 1772 and 1777 – and purchased sculptures and other objects from a number of dealers, including Gavin Hamilton, the Scottish painter and archaeologist. In 1778, he moved to a house near St James’ Park which had been specially designed to house his collections; his new home became something of a private museum where visitors came to enjoy the works displayed over two floors. After Townley’s death in 1805, his collection was acquired by the British Museum, where it was exhibited in newly-built galleries from 1808. Almost all of the Townley sculptures were, however, late works and copies made in the Roman period, and the arrival of the Elgin marbles, displayed at the British Museum from 1816, revolutionized the understanding of ancient Greek art and led to the devaluation of the Townley marbles, as indeed of most of the corpus of ancient sculpture – almost all Roman era copies – admired since the Renaissance. Slide list: * Johan Zoffany, Charles Townley in his library at Park Street, Westminster, oil on canvas, 127 x 102 cm, Burnley, Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum * Joseph Nollekens, Bust of Charles Townley, 1807, marble, 45.6 cm, Burnley, Towneley Hall Art Gallery and Museum Richard Cosway, Charles Townley with a group of connoisseurs (The lecture on Venus’ arse), 1775, Burnley, Towneley Hall, Art Gallery and Museum Pompeo Batoni, Portrait of Francis Bassett, 1778, Madrid, Prado George Romney, Portrait of William Beckford , Warwickshire, Upton House (National Trust) J.H.W. Tischbein, Goethe in the Campagna, 1787; oil on canvas, Frankfurt, Städel Anton von Maron, Portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, 1768 Weimar, Kunstsammlungen Proudly sponsored by Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798), Achilles lamenting the death of Patroclus, 1760-63, oil on canvas, 227.3 x 391.2 cm, Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland William Chambers,The Townley Marbles in the Entrance Hall of 7 Park Street, Westminster, 1794 William Chambers,The Townley Marbles in the Dining Room of 7 Park Street, Westminster, 1794 * Johan Zoffany, The Tribune of the Uffizi, 1772-78, oil on canvas, 123.5 x 155 cm; London, Royal Collection Johan Zoffany, Self-Portrait, 1776, oil on panel, 87.5 x 77 cm, Florence, Uffizi George Romney, Portrait of Charles Francis Greville, oil on canvas, 76.2 x 64.7 cm (sold by Christie’s in London, 2004) George Romney, Portrait of Emma Hart as Circe, c. 1782, oil on canvas, 53.3 x 49.5 cm, London, Tate Gallery Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Sir William Hamilton in Naples, 1777, oil on canvas, 255.3 x 175.2 cm, London, Tate Gallery Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Society of Dilettanti, 1777, oil on canvas, 197 x 142 cm, London, Society of Dilettanti John Severn, Portrait of John Keats, 1821-23, oil on canvas, 56.5 x 41.9 cm, London, National Portrait Gallery * The Townley Venus, Roman period from a lost Greek original of the 4th c. BC, London, British Museum * After Myron, The Discobolus, Roman period copy from lost Greek original of mid 5th century BC, London, British Museum [various other works from the Townley collection not listed separately] Reference: Brian Cook. ‘The Townley Marbles in Westminster and Bloomsbury’, in Richard Camber, ed., Collectors and Collections: the British Museum Yearbook 2, 1977. Elizabeth Prettejohn. The Modernity of Ancient Sculpture. London, Tauris, 2012 Martin Postle. Johan Zoffany RA: society observed. Yale University Press, 2011 Pinterest page that co-ordinates works from Zoffany’s painting with the objects now in the BM collection (research is based on the fundamental essay by Brian Cook above): https://www.pinterest.com/towneley/charles-townley-among-his-marbles/ For access to all past lecture notes visit: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/collectors/ .
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