Pen and black ink, watercolor, graphite, gray wash and brown wash on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper mounted on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Mount: 12 15/16 x 17 11/16 inches (32.8 x 45 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1103
Gallery Label:
John Robert Cozens was the greatest watercolor painter before Thomas Girtin and J. M. W. Turner. Trained by his father, Alexander, Cozens grew up accustomed to the idea that landscape paintings could be deeply expressive. In 1776 he accompanied the connoisseur and collector Richard Payne Knight on a grand tour. Their route to Rome took them through Switzerland, where Cozens made sketches that formed the basis of a suite of watercolors of the sublime mountain scenery. Still heavily indebted to his father’s style in their monochrome palette and taste for awesome prospects, Cozens’s early works were eagerly sought after by connoisseurs who commissioned replicas of these drawings made for Knight. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)