Italian Landscape (c. 1790–92): Art, History and Details

Italian Landscape (c. 1790–92) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Robert Cozens (British, 1752–1797).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the 18th century, views of Italy and the Continent were in great demand among British aristocrats on the Grand Tour. Cozens journeyed to Italy and Switzerland twice in his career, making pencil and wash sketches from which he later derived highly finished watercolors for various patrons. The artist’s somber palette, limited to muted greens, grays, and blues, produces a melancholy, hazy effect in this landscape. The site depicted here has thus far proved unidentifiable and may be an amalgamation of memory and imagination. The left portion of the composition relates to another watercolor depicting a view of Velletri, a town outside of Rome; the cottage and trees in the right foreground seem English, and the central plain and winding river appear to be pure invention.

Object facts

• Title: Italian Landscape
• Date: c. 1790–92
• Creator attribution: John Robert Cozens (British, 1752–1797)
• Culture: England, London
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: watercolor over graphite
• Dimensions: Sheet: 48.7 x 66.9 cm (19 3/16 x 26 5/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - British
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1997.137

A detail from the museum

John Robert Cozens's watercolors became widely known after the doctor who treated him during a mental breakdown in 1794 enlisted two other artists to produce copies for circulation.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.