English painter (–)
John Robert Cozens ( – 14 December ) was a British draftsman and painter of romantic watercolourlandscapes.
Cozens executed watercolors in curious atmospheric effects and illusions which had an influence on Thomas Girtin and J. M. W. Turner. His poetic work included Alpine views and a sense of vastness.[citation needed]John Constable described Cozens as "the greatest genius that ever touched landscape."
In June Cozen's Lake Albano (c) sold at auction, at Sotheby's in London, for £ million, a record for any 18th-century British watercolour.[1]
The son of the Russian-born drawing master and watercolouristAlexander Cozens, John Robert Cozens was born in London. He studied under his father and began to exhibit some early drawings with the Society of Artists in In he displayed the large oil painting, A Landscape with Hannibal in His March Over the Alps, Showing to His Army the Fertile Plains of Italy (now lost) at the Royal Academy in London.[2] This painting was the only oil that Cozens exhibited at the Academy and was the inspiration for J. M. W. Turner's famous painting of [3]
Between and he spent some time in Switzerland and Italy, where he drew Alpine and Italian views, and in he returned to London. In he made his second visit to Italy, accompanied by the author William Beckford, spending much time at Naples. In he returned to England. In he published a set of Delineations of the General Character of Forest Trees. He submitted his work to the Royal Academy but it was rejected, being judged as "not proper art".
At the age of 42, three years before he died, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to the Bethlem Royal Hospital asylum. The asylum's chief physician, Dr. Thomas Monro recognised Cozens' talent and bought his painting collection. Cozens died in London.[citation needed]