John Robert Cozens

Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. (1769-1830);
T.C. Girtin, by descent; 
G.W. Girtin, by descent until sold, Sotheby's London, 14 November 1991, lot 104

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1871, no. 87;
Norwich, Castle Museum, Loan Collection of Drawings, 1903, no. 57;
London, Grafton Galleries, Exhibition of Old Masters, 1911, no. 175;
London, Burlington Fine Art Club, 1923, no. 62;
London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of British Art, 1934, no.707;
Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Early Watercolours from the Collection of Thomas Girtin, Jnr., 1953, no. 22;
Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Watercolours and Drawings by Alexander Cozens and John Robert Cozens, 1956, no. 45;
Leeds, City Art Gallery, Exhibition of Early English Watercolours, 1958, no. 25;
Rome, British Council Exhibition, The Eighteenth Century in Rome, 1959, no. 178;
Reading Museum & Art Gallery, Thomas Girtin and some of his Contemporaries, 1969, no. 8;
Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Exhibition of Watercolour Drawings by J.R. Cozens and J.S. Cotman, 1973, no. 72;
London, The Royal Academy, The Great Age of British Watercolours, 15 January - 11 April 1993, no. 390

F. Gibson, 'The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens', The Studio, February 1917, p. 14, repr. p. 17;
T. Ashby, 'Topographical Notes on Cozens', Burlington Magazine, October 1924, p.193;
L. Binyon, English Watercolours, 1933, p. 48;
C. F. Bell & T. Girtin, 'The Drawings and Sketches of John Robert Cozens', Walpole Society, 1935, no.149;
T. Girtin & D. Loshak, The Art of Thomas Girtin, 1954, fig. 3;
H. Lemaitre, Le Paysage Anglais à l'Aquarelle, 1955, pl. 10

Support: Cozens has used a sheet of laid paper which has a visible centre join or fold. The condition is good and the work has no surface dirt or damages. There is a slight horizontal paper crease in the sky running through the centre of the sheet. Medium: The colours in this powerful watercolour are in an extremely good state showing no fading of the indigo. There maybe a small amount of re-touching on the lower part of the paper join/fold. Note: This work was viewed behind glass and outside studio condition. For further information regarding this lot please contact Mark Griffith-Jones (0207 293 5083) or Emmeline Hallmark (0207 293 5407) mark.griffithjones@sothebys.com emmeline.hallmark@sothebys.com
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In the words of John Constable, Cozens 'was the greatest genius that ever touched landscape...'[1] . One of the most poignant of all English landscapes this work serves to illustrate Constable's claim. Seldom has any artist succeeded with such subtlety and delicacy in evoking the spirit and sentiment of a scene.

Cozens drew Lake Albano on several occasion but none from this precise viewpoint. The view is taken from the highest point above Albano and beyond the monastery of the Cappucini, opposite Castel Gandolfo with the Pope's summer residence. In this hauntingly beautiful and powerful watercolour Cozens does not merely record the scene but concentrates upon capturing the mood and colour of the landscape in the middle of a storm.

The large dimensions and sober rich tonality of this work advertises the revolutionary aim of Cozens who was determined to produce with transparent colours something that could compete in terms of pictorial strength with oil painting. Other artists followed closely in Cozens' footsteps, but none with the same power of imparting such significance to a subject by subduing its topographical contents and enhancing its pictorial and emotional elements. The sketches and watercolours which Cozens made and which were subsequently copied were instrumental in opening the minds of English artists to the impressiveness of landscape scenery.

Cozens was arguably better equipped than most young artists of his generation. His understanding of the essence and ingredients necessary in interpreting a landscape on paper could not have failed to have been encouraged by his father. John Robert Cozens was born in London, the elder of two children of Alexander Cozens (1717-1786) landscape artist, theorist and drawings master (see later lot in this sale), and his wife, daughter of the engraver John Pine. John Robert followed in his father's footsteps, and by 1771, at the astonishingly early age of only fifteen, he was exhibiting landscape drawings at the Society of Artists. In 1776 Cozens was invited by Richard Payne Knight on his first continental tour. Arriving in Rome he was met by fellow British artists, Ozias Humphrey, Henry Fuseli, William Pars and Thomas Jones. Payne Knight wanted Cozens to colour the pencil sketches made by Philip Hackert and Charles Gore to create finished watercolours, but Cozens also made time to sketch independently in Rome and the surrounding campagna. He returned to England in April 1779, and settled in Bath near the seats of several of his father's patrons and friends, including Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Beckford who had already commissioned a number of watercolours of his Italian subjects.

In 1782 Cozens was invited to accompany William Beckford (1760-1844) and his enormous entourage on a second trip to Italy. Beckford was a pupil of Cozens' father, and the only child of Alderman William Beckford, Lord Mayor of London and a man of very considerable means. They travelled at great speed and reached their destination, Rome, at the beginning of summer. Having arrived in Rome at the height of the malarial season they left almost immediately for Naples (when he was to paint Vietri and Riato see following lot in this sale).

Cozens returned to Rome in December and remained there for almost a year. Beckford had already returned to England, but Cozens remained and sketched in the city and the surrounding area, often in the company of Thomas Jones (whose drawing of Egeria is also offered in this sale). Beckford employed Cozens more extensively than any one else and eventually possessed over one hundred of his best works. This demanding and committed patron's personality might have remained in Cozens' mind as he sketched. Just as his father's works had influenced Beckford's early writing, in several instances the poetic landscapes such as this work form remarkable parallels to passages of melancholic sensibility in Beckford's letters written on this tour. Looking at this powerful view, devoid of figurative presence and dominated by the hauntingly dramatic storm-filled sky, a connection might be made with Beckford's own writings of loneliness and desolation whilst in the Roman campagna. He wrote, 'in such scenes I have mused away whole hours by the evening light, and the moss has often drank my tears.'[2]

Little is known of Cozens' life between his return to London and 1794 when the diarist Joseph Farington reported that Cozens was 'paralytic to a degree that incapacitated him.'[3] He was placed under the care of Dr Monro who clearly appreciated the talents of his patient. He allowed and even employed the young artists Thomas Girtin and Joseph Mallord William Turner to make copies of Cozens' sketches and watercolours which Monro either owned or had borrowed from fellow collectors. Cozens' poetic vision was to influence the next generation of young landscape artists. After his death, Henry Fuseli wrote that, John Robert Cozens 'followed the arrangements of nature, which he saw with an enchanted eye, and drew with an enchanted hand.'[4]

Previously only thought to have been in the collection of Thomas Girtin's descendents, this watercolour bears the collector's stamp of Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830). Lawrence also acquired Cozens' The Two Great Temples at Paestum, 1782 after the Beckford sale in London at Christie's on 10^th April 1805.[5]

[1] M. Hardie quoting and commenting on John Constable's remarks on Cozens, in Watercolour Painting in Britain, London 1966, p. 132
[2] L. Melville, The Life and Letters of William Beckford, London 1920, p. 158
[3] J. Farington, Diary, 1.148
[4] A P Oppe, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, 1952, p. 158
[5] C.F. Bell & T. Girtin, 'The Drawings and Sketches of John Robert Cozens,' Walpole Society, 1935, no. 299.