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Image

John Robert Cozens

Lake Nemi with a Distant View of Genzano (and Monte Circeo)

Description

Maker

John Robert Cozens (English, 1752-1799)

Title

Lake Nemi with a Distant View of Genzano (and Monte Circeo)

Year

1778-1790

Medium

  • Watercolor applied with brush,
  • graphite

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Watercolor applied with brush,
  • graphite

Materials

watercolor, wash technique

Dimensions

37.2 x 53.2 cm (14 5/8 x 20 15/16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Anonymous Gift

Object Number

70.118.19

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

A Handbook of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

  • Books

Selection II: British Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum's Collection

  • Books

Selected Works

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Distant Climes
18th-Century British Views of Italy
Sep 01, 2011 – Jun 03, 2012

Label copy

In the later 18th-century John Robert Cozens began to extend the expressive possibilities of the watercolor medium, conveying an emotional response to nature. His many views of Italy, generated from studies he made on his trip there between 1776 and 1779, were extremely influential for British landscape artists of the following generations. The balance of the composition and its measured recession into space refers to the classical compositional formulae of earlier artists Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, but Cozens’s composition retains little relationship to the technique of topographical drawing found in other works in this gallery. Cozens’s watercolor washes instead emphasize the lyrical quality of diffused light and the impression of atmosphere.

Luminous Landscapes
British Watercolors from the Museum's Collection
May 27, 2005 – Aug 14, 2005

Label copy

Between 1776 and 1779, Cozens accompanied Richard Payne Knight (1750-1824) antiquarian, connoisseur, and collector, on the Grand Tour through Switzerland to Rome. Cozens sketched continuously on the journey and throughout the next decade worked from these studies (subsequently part of the Knight collection) to produce distinctly styled watercolors, such as this one, primarily in blue grays contrasted with soft browns. There are at least nine compositions of Lake Nemi looking toward the Swiss town of Genzano, a popular subject.

Selection II
British Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum's Collection
Apr 13, 1972 – May 14, 1972

Use & Feedback

Image use

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This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

John Robert Cozens (English, 1752-1799)
Lake Nemi with a Distant View of Genzano (and Monte Circeo), 1778-1790
Watercolor applied with brush, graphite
37.2 x 53.2 cm (14 5/8 x 20 15/16 inches)
Anonymous Gift 70.118.19

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Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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