(1763 - 1840)
Painter of landscapes, sporting scenes and cattle Charles Towne was born near Wigan; the son of portrait painter Richard Town. (Charles added an ‘e’ to his surname in 1799.) He trained under a coach painter in Manchester, where he developed a practice in heraldic painting. He visited London in 1797 and became interested in the work of the Swiss-born landscape painter Phillipe Jacques de Loutherbourg. Towne exhibited at the Royal Academy (1799¬-1812) and the British Institution (until 1823). In 1812, he became Vice-President of the Liverpool Academy. He died in Liverpool, from dropsy, on 6 January 1840, aged 77. Examples of his work can be seen in numerous British public collections, including the Tate and the British Museum in London.
