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Lot Essay
Cozens toured the Continent with the collector Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824) from 1776 until 1779. Arriving in Geneva, they ventured along the north side of the lake, before continuing southeast through Sallanches to Chamonix, then over the Col de Montets to Martigny, Bex, l'Aigle, and over the mountains to Interlaken and Spiez. They then went on to Unterwalden, Engelberg and Lake Lucerne, before taking in the Canton of Glarus en route to the Splügen Pass into Italy, arriving at Rome, via Como, in November 1776. Cozens’s drawings from the trip, most of which are now in the British Museum, trace this route.
The present drawing is one of a small, distinct group which do not fit into the main body of work executed on this trip. A letter of 1780 from William Beckford (1760-1844) to Alexander Cozens (1717-1786) asks: ‘Does your son go on with my drawings? I hope he does – he cannot make too many. Having seen Italy I value them more than ever if that be possible.’ (K. Sloan, Alexander and J.R. Cozens: The Poetry of Landscape, London, 1986, p. 138). It seems that on his return from the first tour, Beckford commissioned Cozens to execute versions of the drawings made for Payne Knight for his own collection.
The present drawing relates to one in the British Museum (C.F. Bell and T. Girtin, 'The Drawings and Sketches of John Robert Cozens', Walpole Society, XXIII, 1935, no. 28), formerly in the collection of Payne Knight. That drawing is more monochromatic, and uses pen and ink throughout. The present work is a reinterpretation of the view: whilst topographically accurate it is not a copy and there are distinct differences in the foliage on the right hand hillside, as well as in the colouring. Others in the series executed for Beckford share its blue tones. Whilst this intriguing group of drawings were overlooked by Bell and Girtin in their 1935 catalogue, their importance as a record of Cozens’ aesthetic development between his 1776-1779 tour and that made with Beckford in 1782 is evident.
The present drawing is one of a small, distinct group which do not fit into the main body of work executed on this trip. A letter of 1780 from William Beckford (1760-1844) to Alexander Cozens (1717-1786) asks: ‘Does your son go on with my drawings? I hope he does – he cannot make too many. Having seen Italy I value them more than ever if that be possible.’ (K. Sloan, Alexander and J.R. Cozens: The Poetry of Landscape, London, 1986, p. 138). It seems that on his return from the first tour, Beckford commissioned Cozens to execute versions of the drawings made for Payne Knight for his own collection.
The present drawing relates to one in the British Museum (C.F. Bell and T. Girtin, 'The Drawings and Sketches of John Robert Cozens', Walpole Society, XXIII, 1935, no. 28), formerly in the collection of Payne Knight. That drawing is more monochromatic, and uses pen and ink throughout. The present work is a reinterpretation of the view: whilst topographically accurate it is not a copy and there are distinct differences in the foliage on the right hand hillside, as well as in the colouring. Others in the series executed for Beckford share its blue tones. Whilst this intriguing group of drawings were overlooked by Bell and Girtin in their 1935 catalogue, their importance as a record of Cozens’ aesthetic development between his 1776-1779 tour and that made with Beckford in 1782 is evident.