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Creator:
Alexander Cozens, 1717–1786
Title:

Mountain Tops (A Mountain Study)

Date:
ca. 1780
Medium:
Brown wash, gray wash, graphite, and brown ground on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper, mounted on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 9 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches (23.5 x 31.1 cm), Mount: 14 3/4 x 19 1/2 inches (37.5 x 49.5 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in graphite, upper right: "5 100"; in graphite, lower right: "22x16 | Plain David Cox | overmount"; in graphite, lower right: "D 814 | 802" in graphite, lower right: "22 3/8 x 19 5/8"; inscribed on verso in graphite, upper left: "D. 814 | T < . . . > 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 H[...]a | 31/P/N | B[...] BK"; in graphite, center: "91"; in graphite, lower right: "COZENS Alexander | A Mountain Study (D.292) | (LGD 65/9/22/8) | (PM 2368)"

Signed on mount in pen and gray ink, lower left: "Alexr. Cozens"; not dated

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.5233
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
clouds | landscape | mountains | rocks (landforms) | study (visual work)
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:7813
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Alexander Cozens was born in Russia to English parents working for Peter the Great. He was schooled in England and eventually settled there, where he found employment as a drawing master. The author of a number of theoretical texts on art and aesthetics, he argued that landscape could convey the kind of moral messages usually associated with history painting. For Cozens, a view of mountains like this one could inspire feelings of “surprise, terror, superstition, silence, melancholy, power, strength.” His sublime imagery and aesthetic theory had a major impact on later landscapists, especially his own son, John Robert Cozens.

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)

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) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Alexander and J. R. Cozens (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1987-01-30 - 1987-03-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-09-17 - 1980-11-16) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Kim Sloan, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, the poetry of landscape , Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1986, p. 77, pl. 88, NJ18 C83 S56 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Andrew Wilton, The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, p. 30, no. 24, pl. 11, NJ18 C83 W55 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 12-13, no. 2, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]


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