ALEXANDER COZENS
(1717-1786)
The Small Lake
pen and ink with washes on paper
11.3 x 15 cm
Signed with initial lower left: ‘C’
Inscribed on reverse: Couzins
Signed with initial lower left: ‘C’
Inscribed on reverse: Couzins
Acquired by a Private Collector, USA
Provenance
L.H. Gilbert
L.H. Gilbert sale, Christie's, 6 March 1973 (56)
Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, 1974
Private Collection, UK
Exhibited
London, Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1974, no.62.
Born in Russia to an English father, then educated in England, Cozens traveled to Italy to study with Claude-Joseph Vernet. Back in London by 1748, Cozens became an influential drawing master and theorist, publishing "An Essay to Faciliate the Inventing of Landskips" (1759). Citing Leonardo da Vinci, who had been inspired by cracks and patterns on old walls, Cozens suggested that artists develop landscapes from ink blots drawn swiftly with a brush dipped in ink. We are grateful to Francesca Kaes for suggesting a date of the early 1760s for the present drawing.
