Brown wash, gray wash, graphite, and brown ground on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper, mounted on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 9 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches (23.5 x 31.1 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, upper right: "5 100"; in graphite, lower right: "22x16 | Plain David Cox | overmount"; in graphite, lower right: "D 814 | 802" in graphite, lower right: "22 3/8 x 19 5/8"; inscribed on verso in graphite, upper left: "D. 814 | T < . . . > 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 H[...]a | 31/P/N | B[...] BK"; in graphite, center: "91"; in graphite, lower right: "COZENS Alexander | A Mountain Study (D.292) | (LGD 65/9/22/8) | (PM 2368)"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
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)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13)Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30)Alexander and J. R. Cozens (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1987-01-30 - 1987-03-29)The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-09-17 - 1980-11-16)
Publications:
Kim Sloan, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, the poetry of landscape , Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1986, p. 77, pl. 88, NJ18 C83 S56 (YCBA)Andrew Wilton, The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, pp. 9, 30, no. 24, pl. 11, NJ18 C83 W55 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 12-13, no. 2, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Alexander Cozens was born in Russia to English parents working for Peter the Great. He was schooled in England and eventually settled there, where he found employment as a drawing master. The author of a number of theoretical texts on art and aesthetics, he argued that landscape could convey the kind of moral messages usually associated with history painting. For Cozens, a view of mountains like this one could inspire feelings of “surprise, terror, superstition, silence, melancholy, power, strength.” His sublime imagery and aesthetic theory had a major impact on later landscapists, especially his own son, John Robert Cozens. 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)