John Robert Cozens (1752 – 14 December 1797) was a British

draftsman A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans for ...

and painter of romantic

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...

. Cozens executed watercolors in curious atmospheric effects and illusions which had an influence on

Thomas Girtin Thomas Girtin (18 February 17759 November 1802) was an English watercolourist and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Girtin played a key role in establishing watercolour as a reputable art form. Life Thomas Girtin was born in Sou ...

and

J.M.W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbule ...

. Indeed, his work is full of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

. There is a solemn grandeur in his Alpine views and a sense of vastness, a tender tranquility and a kind of mystery in most of his paintings, leaving parts in his pictures for the imagination of the spectator to dwell on and search into. John Constable described Cozens as "the greatest genius that ever touched landscape." In June 2010 Cozen's ''Lake Albano'' (c.1777) sold at auction, at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in London, for £2.4 million, a record for any 18th-century British watercolour.

Biography

The son of the Russian-born drawing master and

ist

Alexander Cozens Alexander Cozens (1717–1786) was a British landscape painter in watercolours, born in Russia, in Saint Petersburg. He taught drawing and wrote treatises on the subject, evolving a method in which imaginative drawings of landscapes could be wor ...

, John Robert Cozens was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He studied under his father and began to exhibit some early drawings with the Society of Artists in 1767. In 1776 he displayed the large

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

, ''A Landscape with Hannibal in His March Over the Alps, Showing to His Army the Fertile Plains of Italy'' (now lost) at the Royal Academy in London. This painting was the only

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

that Cozens exhibited at the Academy and was the inspiration for J. M. W. Turner's famous painting of 1812. Between 1776 and 1779 he spent some time in Switzerland and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, where he drew Alpine and Italian views, and in 1779 he returned to London. In 1782 he made his second visit to Italy, accompanied by the author William Beckford, spending much time at

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. In 1783 he returned to England. In 1789 he published a set of ''Delineations of the General Character ... of Forest Trees''. He submitted his work to the Royal Academy but it was entirely rejected, being judged as "not proper art". At the age of 42, three years before he died, he suffered a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

and was committed to the Bethlem Royal Hospital asylum. The chief physician there was Dr. Thomas Monro who, also being a keen art collector, recognised Cozens' brilliance and bought his collection. Cozens died in London.

Public collections

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Ste ...

Collection Rijksmuseum
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Gallery Oldham

References

External links

*
Artcyclopedia: John Robert Cozens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cozens, John Robert 1752 births 1797 deaths 18th-century English male artists 18th-century English painters English male painters English romantic painters Landscape artists English watercolourists Painters from London British draughtsmen

Biography

Public collections

See also

References

Further reading

External links