John Robert Cozens, 1752–1797, British, London from Greenwich Hill, ca. 1791
- Title:
- London from Greenwich Hill
- Date:
- ca. 1791
- Medium:
- Watercolor and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 14 7/8 x 21 1/8 inches (37.8 x 53.7 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1977.14.4703
- Classification:
- Drawings & Watercolors
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- buildings | deer | domes | hills | landscape | river | trees
- Associated Places:
- England | London | Thames
- Access:
- Accessible by request in the Study Room [Request]
Note: As a COVID-19 precaution, the Study Room is closed until further notice. - Curatorial Comment:
- <double click to display>
- <double click to hide>In the last decades of the eighteenth century, the vogue for the Picturesque reshaped the conventions of topographical drawing; new aesthetic and sensory concerns were grafted onto its longstanding informational role. The straightforward presentation of antiquaries by the Bucks was replaced in the watercolors of Thomas Hearne, Michael Rooker, and Edward Dayes by images carefully calculated to enhance sublime or picturesque qualities of the site. In place of the distant "prospects" that were a Buck specialty, these artists took the viewer right into the fashionable precincts of the city or created far-off atmospheric vistas that provided a sense of the grandeur or the metropolis without enumerating its landmarks. The view of London from Greenwich Hill has been popular with artists since the seventeenth century. By choosing a vantage point in which the domes of Christopher Wren's Royal Naval Hospital are visible, but the Royal Observatory and the Queen's House are not, John Robert Cozens created a composition which downplays topographical particularity in favor of an evocative association of the view with that of Rome and, in his coloring and atmosphere, imbues the view with the same melancholy grandeur that characterizes his Roman scenes. This, like The Lake of Albano and Castel Gandolfo (cats. 103-4), was one of Cozen's most admired compositions, as indicated by its being known in six versions, one of which (private collection) is signed and dated 1791.--Scott Wilcox,2001-05
- Exhibition History:
- <double click to display>
- <double click to hide>
The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens (Yale Center for British Art, 1980-09-17 - 1980-11-16)
Presences of Nature - British Landscape 1780-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-10 - 1983-02)
- Publications:
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- <double click to hide>
Lowell Libson Ltd : British Art : 2016, Lowell Libson Ltd., 2016, p. 30, Dealer Cat Lowell Libson 2016 (YCBA)
- Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:9189
- Export:
- XML | RDF
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