| Charles
Towne
1763-1840
Born in Wigan in 1763, the third child
of Robert and Mary Town. Thirty six years later he added an
'e' to his surname. As a child, Charles showed a precocious
talent and is recorded as selling drawings of animals at the
tender age of eight. Four years later Charles walked from Wigan
to Leeds a distance of near 60 miles, to join the studio of
John Rathbone. There he learned the rudiments of landscape painting
and first became aware of the 17th century Dutch Masters; those
formal landscapes with the hallmark contrasts of open space
and towering trees. These compositions appealed enormously to
Charles Towne as being the perfect settings for his paintings
of horses, dogs and animals in general and he started to bring
such settings into his composition, after 1790.
By 1780 Charles was in Liverpool with his elder brother, who
was a coachpainter. There he learned the craft of japanning,
became a coachpainter for a while and married a widow, Margaret
Harrison, in 1785. George Stubbs proved another massive influence
on Charles Towne's direction as did Philip de Loutherbourg,
who's studio Towne visited in London in 1797.
Charles divided his time between Liverpool and Manchester during
this period, finding work and commissions from the wealthy gentry
of Cheshire and Lancashire. He lived in London for five years
from 1799, which was when he added the 'e' to his name. He began
to exhibit at the Royal Academy where he met George Morland,
a founder member of that establishment. Unfortunately, Charles
began to emulate Morland's lifestyle and although he was recorded
as earning £600 a year in 1798, he was spending his income
as fast as he earned it. By 1810 Charles Towne had returned
to Liverpool where he became a founder member of the Liverpool
Academy and served as its vice-president 1812-1813. He exhibited
sporadically there (1810-1813 and 1822-1825) and at the Royal
Manchester Institution 1827-1833. Interestingly, he also took
on picture cleaning and restoration from 1813. Charles Towne
died in Liverpool in 1840 and he is represented in the Walker
Art Gallery in Liverpool.
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