London from Greenwich Hill - YCBA Collections Search

John Robert Cozens, 1752–1797, British, London from Greenwich Hill, ca. 1791

Creator:: John Robert Cozens, 1752–1797
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 appointment in the Study Room [Request]
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Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:9189
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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

Wilcox, Forrester, O'Neil, Sloan. The Line of Beauty: British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2001. pg. 166 cat. no. 142

Nobleness and Grandeur - Forging Historical Landscape in Britain, 1760 - 1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 2005-01-27 - 2005-04-24) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Line of Beauty : British Drawings and Watercolors of the Eighteenth Century (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-05-19 - 2001-08-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Gentle, Rural and Sublime - English Landscape Paintings and Watercolors, 1750-1850 (Denver Art Museum, 1993-12-11 - 1994-02-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Presences of Nature - British Landscape 1780-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-10-20 - 1983-02-27) [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]

English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Katharine Baetjer, Glorious nature, British landscape painting, 1750-1850 , Zwemmer publisher, London, 1993, pp. 156-7, no. 38, ND1354.4 B34 1993 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christie's sale catalogue : Important English drawings and watercolours : 6 June 1972, Christie's, June 6, 1972, p. 29, lot 98, Auction Catalogues (YCBA)

Louis Hawes, Presences of Nature : British Landscape, 1780-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1982, pp. 100-2, 194, no. VI.16, pl. 81, ND1354.4 H38 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Olivia Horsfall Turner, Nobleness & grandeur : forging historical landscape in Britain 1760-1850, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2005, p. 20, no. 36, V 1420 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Lowell Libson Ltd : British Art : 2016, Lowell Libson Ltd., 2016, p. 30, Dealer Cat Lowell Libson 2016 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Christopher White, English landscape, 1630-1850, drawings, prints & books from the Paul Mellon Collection , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1977, p. 48, no. 77, pl. LXXXIX, NC228 W45 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

Scott Wilcox, Line of beauty : British drawings and watercolors of the eighteenth century, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, pp. 165-7, no. 142, NC228 W53 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Andrew Wilton, The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, p. 51, no. 137, pl. 36, NJ18 C83 W55 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]

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