Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851, Britishafter John Robert Cozens, 1752–1797, British
Title:
Tivoli with the Temple of the Sybil and the Cascades
Date:
ca. 1794–97
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor, graphite, and scraping out on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 16 1/2 x 21 5/8 inches (41.9 x 54.9 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.356
Gallery Label:
These watercolors are copies of works by John Robert Cozens, perhaps the most accomplished of the previous generation of landscape watercolorists, and another unknown artist. They are collaborative productions, created under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Monro, who owned the originals. Seeking to make use of the particular talents of the artists he employed, Monro asked Turner’s contemporary Thomas Girtin to draw the outlines and Turner himself to add definition and tone through elaborate watercolor washes. These examples clearly show Cozens’s influence in their increasing use of carefully graduated color to give more richness and subtlety of effect to the landscapes depicted. Gallery label for J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality (Yale Center for British Art, March - 29, 2025 - July 27, 2025)