Gray wash, black wash, graphite and buff ground on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper, mounted on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Mount: 15 3/4 x 20 3/4 inches (40 x 52.7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.139
Gallery Label:
Alexander Cozens discouraged his students from copying nature directly, urging them to create ideal landscapes from the imagination instead. To do this he developed a notorious drawing system that consisted of making random marks, or “blots,” on a sheet of paper until a landscape gradually began to take shape. This view of an imaginary island was almost certainly worked up from a blot drawing. The monochrome palette and indistinct forms required the viewer to take an active part in imaginatively completing the landscape, something Cozens thought was a “singular advantage” of his method. 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)