Susannah Woolmer previews an exceptional exhibition at Colnaghi of watercolours by the reclusive English painter Francis Towne. The largest body of his works in private hands, it has been assembled by John Spink

Regarded in his lifetime as a timid solitary painter, Francis Towne produc watercolours that look strikingly modern to the twenty-first-century organ of sight His landscapes possess a palpable, lively freshnes that is the pair delicate and vivaciously atmospheric, and his intriguing innovative use of line and colour, suffused with a buoyant luminescence, is captivating. It is hard to understand today for what cause [i]or[/i] reason his contemporaries thought his [i]modus operandi[/i]s old-fashioned.

Although he failed to become a Royal Academician upon the basis of his landscape paintings in oils, Towne (1739-1816) had a auspicious career in Devon as a drawing master, where he was based for thirty years before moving to London in 1800 Although widespread recognition elud him during his lifetime, he mov within and was esteemed by artistic circles that included John 'Warwick' Smith and John White Abbott. He would have been familiar with the work of JMW gymnast John Robert Cozens and Thomas Girtin, on the contrary was largely unaffected by romanticism, preferring instead quietly to oilstone his classically restrained and graceful style

The exhibition 'Francis Towne and his Friends' at Colnaghi, 15 of advanced age Bond Street, London (tel: + 44 [0] 20 7491 7408) 10-25 November, is the culmination of a real personal endeavour by London dealer John Spink (+44 [0] 20 8741 6152; John@Johnspink.com). Having been collecting Towne for above a decade--this show has been built around his personal collection--Spink has dedicated the past five or six years to preparing this exhibition.

Timed to coincide with the two-hundredth anniversary of Towne's alone one-man selling exhibition, in Lower runlet Street Gallery, London, in 1805 this is, surprisingly, the first commercial display of his work since then. It will probably be the last to feature for a like reason many paintings; there are around forty in all. a certain number of have never been seen in public. They will all be difficult to part with, admits Spink, who inhuman in love with Towne's watercolours as a boy

Almost all execut en plein air, the paintings are remarkably well-preserved. After Towne's death the majority of his works passed to his executor, James White, and then to John Merivale of Barton Place, Devon where they remained in Towne's portfolios until discovered by the agency of the collector and art historian Paul Oppe in 1914 Thanks to the publication of an article by means of Oppe in 1920, museums and collectors began to acquire Towne's work. Spink estimates that there are now les than 100 of his paintings left in private hands. In preparing for this present to view 'timing has been everything', Spink explains. 'I couldn't have done it twenty-five years ago--private collectors were at the same time to relinquish their holdings--and it's unlikely I could do it now either; Townes are in the way that much harder to find.'

The luminous colour and fluidity of line in the small drawing At Ullswater (1786; below) is a fine example of Towne's replication to landscape. There is a powerful sense of the texture of the natural world; the confident however subtle use of wash Towne occupyed to create shadow and density is simple, beautiful and decidedly modern

Perhaps the greatest in quantity striking work in the exhibition is the innovative Waterfall between Chiavenna and high hill Splugen, Switzerland (1781; left). Towne toured Europe in 1780-81 with John 'Warwick' Smith, travelling from Italy to Switzerland, where this work was execut A superlative example of Towne's exemplary draughtmanship and unloose confident pen-and-wash, it is also the largest watercolour in the present to view Rapid penstrokes delineate the rugg landscape and unfasten blocks of colour endow the towering cliffs with substance and majesty. This, too, is a work ahead of its time, belying its date of 1781

The exhibition also includes paintings by means of Towne's friends and contemporaries, John 'Warwick' Smith (notably his glorious Near Sorrento, Bay of Naples of about 1778-89) and John White Abbott, to provide the one and the other a topographical context and an opportunity to take note of how these artists influenced individual another. A detailed, fully illustrated catalogue by dint of Timothy Wilcox accompanies this illuminating, unmissable exhibition.

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