John Robert Cozens
Born – London, England 1752
Died – London, England 1797
John Robert Cozens was a pupil of his father Alexander, who is best known for his method of composing landscapes out of accidental ink blots. Both father and son were associated with William Beckford, a leading protagonist of the trend towards sensibility of feeling in landscape in the late eighteenth century. John Cozens was more concerned to convey the poetry and drama that he found in landscape than he was with exact representation. He almost exclusively painted in watercolour – there is only one surviving oil painting – adopting a muted palette of predominantly blue-green and blue-grey. His work influenced Turner and Girtin and, in particular, Constable who referred to him as “the greatest genius that ever touched landscapes”. Cozens visited Switzerland and Italy, where he was especially drawn to the grandeur of the Italian lakes and the Swiss Alps. Valley with Winding Stream shows how his watercolours manage to emphasize the monumentality of the landscape at the expense of detail. There is a melancholic aspect to Cozens, which eventually was to overwhelm him. Psychiatric problems brought about his death when he was only forty-five years old.
Masterpieces:
- View of Lake Albano
- Valley of the Eisah Brixen in Tyrol
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Books About john robert cozens
Alexander and John Robert Cozens: The Poetry of Landscape
Kim Sloan
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Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens
Andrew Wilton
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CATALOGUE OF SEVEN SKETCH-BOOKS BY JOHN ROBERT COZENS.
No author.
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