DOI issue:
Nr. 241 (March, 1917)
DOI article:Gibson, Frank: The art of Alexander and John Robert Cozen
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43464#0026
The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens
“ VIEW NEAR ROME ”
(Victoria and Albert Museum')
BY ALEXANDER COZENS
up into imaginary landscape forms. The theory
that accident may help design was also held by
Leonardo da Vinci, who in his writings recom-
mends the stains on a plaster wall as aids to a
landscape design. Cozens most likely got the
idea from Leonardo, and this system of accidental
blotting may have been a fashionable whim
of the moment among his pupils. But it was
certainly not the whole of his teaching, which
is proved by some of his books, particularly one
called “ The Shape, Skeleton, and Foliage of
Thirty-two Species of Trees,’' published in 1771.
A book like this, which ran into a second
edition, shows that he was thorough enough
as a teacher in some essentials. At any rate
very few of these so-called blottesque drawings
by him have survived till to-day.
Alexander Cozens was one of two sons born
to Peter the Great by an Englishwoman, the
daughter of a publisher named Cozens, whose
acquaintance he made when working in the
dockyards at Deptford, and whom he took back
to Russia. The date of Alexander’s birth is
unknown, and any account of his early life is
4
entirely lacking until he was sent by his father
to study painting in Italy. From here he came
to England in 1746, where he soon obtained a
position both in art and society. He became
drawing-master at Eton College and gave
lessons to the Prince of Wales. He commenced
to teach in the season at Bath about the time
when Gainsborough left it, and had a number
of fashionable pupils there. He knew many
titled, wealthy, and illustrious people in his day,
including Burke, Garrick, Flaxman, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, and other artists and connoisseurs
by whom he was much esteemed. By his
marriage with a sister of a fellow-artist, Robert
Edge Pine, he left one son, the famous John
Robert Cozens, whose art so captivated Turner,
Girtin, and Constable. After a busy life as a
teacher the elder Cozens died in London in 1786.
The art of Alexander Cozens is much less
known generally than that of his son, though
his early work can be studied very fairly in the
comprehensive collection of forty-five drawings
in the British Museum. These have a curious
history. They were lost in Germany whilst the
“ VIEW NEAR ROME ”
(Victoria and Albert Museum')
BY ALEXANDER COZENS
up into imaginary landscape forms. The theory
that accident may help design was also held by
Leonardo da Vinci, who in his writings recom-
mends the stains on a plaster wall as aids to a
landscape design. Cozens most likely got the
idea from Leonardo, and this system of accidental
blotting may have been a fashionable whim
of the moment among his pupils. But it was
certainly not the whole of his teaching, which
is proved by some of his books, particularly one
called “ The Shape, Skeleton, and Foliage of
Thirty-two Species of Trees,’' published in 1771.
A book like this, which ran into a second
edition, shows that he was thorough enough
as a teacher in some essentials. At any rate
very few of these so-called blottesque drawings
by him have survived till to-day.
Alexander Cozens was one of two sons born
to Peter the Great by an Englishwoman, the
daughter of a publisher named Cozens, whose
acquaintance he made when working in the
dockyards at Deptford, and whom he took back
to Russia. The date of Alexander’s birth is
unknown, and any account of his early life is
4
entirely lacking until he was sent by his father
to study painting in Italy. From here he came
to England in 1746, where he soon obtained a
position both in art and society. He became
drawing-master at Eton College and gave
lessons to the Prince of Wales. He commenced
to teach in the season at Bath about the time
when Gainsborough left it, and had a number
of fashionable pupils there. He knew many
titled, wealthy, and illustrious people in his day,
including Burke, Garrick, Flaxman, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, and other artists and connoisseurs
by whom he was much esteemed. By his
marriage with a sister of a fellow-artist, Robert
Edge Pine, he left one son, the famous John
Robert Cozens, whose art so captivated Turner,
Girtin, and Constable. After a busy life as a
teacher the elder Cozens died in London in 1786.
The art of Alexander Cozens is much less
known generally than that of his son, though
his early work can be studied very fairly in the
comprehensive collection of forty-five drawings
in the British Museum. These have a curious
history. They were lost in Germany whilst the