On the Lake of Nemi - YCBA Collections Search

John Robert Cozens, 1752–1797, British, On the Lake of Nemi, between 1780 and 1783

Creator:: John Robert Cozens, 1752–1797
Title:: On the Lake of Nemi
Former Title(s):: Lake Nemi
Date:: between 1780 and 1783
Materials & Techniques:: Watercolor and graphite on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:: Sheet: 8 1/4 x 11 7/8 inches (21 x 30.2 cm), Mount: 10 5/8 x 14 1/4 inches (27 x 36.2 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:: Inscribed on verso in graphite, center left: "Nemi"
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1975.4.1482
Classification:: Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:: Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:: cliffs | houses | lakes | landscape | structures | trees
Associated Places:: Campagna | Italy | Nemi, Lago di
Access:: Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
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Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:8879
Export:: XML
IIIF Manifest:: JSON

One of Cozens's patrons was the wealthy young connoisseur William Beckford, a pupil of Alexander Cozens. He began commissioning replicas of Cozens's Swiss and Italian views in the early 1780s, and this view of Lake Nemi outside Rome once formed part of Beckford's collection. Instead of representing the lake in a balanced classical composition, Cozens takes his view from the lake itself, looking up the steep cliffs to the village of Nemi. Here the crater's sloping side becomes an imposing rocky crag with the medieval castle and village skyline adapted to give it more variety and visual interest. A turbulent cloudy sky completes the transformation of the lake from the archetypically beautiful into the sublime.

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)

Once the younger Cozens reached Italy, his art was transformed. Payne Knight left him behind and for the next year and a half Cozens lived in rome, mixing with such fellow expatriate artists as Thomas Jones, William Pars (cat. no. 11), John "Warwick" Smith, and Francis Towne (cat. no. 10). On his return to London in 1779, he made a living producing finished watercolors from his Italian sketches for a discerning group of patrons. On the Lake of Nemi was probably exectuted for William Beckford, one of the wealthiest young men of England and a devoted friend and pupil of Alexander Cozens.

Lake Nemi itself fills a volcanic crater in the Alban hills outside Rome, close to the papl retreat of Castel Gandolfo. Richard Wilson was one of the first British painters to depict the lake in the 1750s, and few artists and tourists visited Rome without stopping to admire the famous site. In ancient times, a temple sacred to Diana stood on its banks and was reflected on the lake's surface, hence Virgil had dubbed the lake "Diana's Mirror." Wilson's view of the lake, based on the idealizing formulae of Claude and Gaspard Dughet, showed it as a tranquil pool that might have been taken straight from Virgil's Eclogues, complete with figures of Diana and Callisto to heighten the site's classical resonances (fig. 4). But Cozen's view of the lake is quite different. He shunned any direct classical allusion and rejected a Claudean formula, sacrificing topological accuracy for pictorial effect. Instead of representing the lake in a balanced, classical composition, his viewpoint is from the lake itself, looking up the steep cliffs to the village of Nemi. The crater's sloping side becomes an imposing rocky crag, with the medieval castle and village skyline adapted to give it more variety and visual interest. Wilson's even light is replaced by a turbulent cloudy sky, transforming the lake from an archetypally beautiful site into a location of the threatening sublime. It is worth recalling that Cozens's patron William Beckford had been force-fed a diet of the classics as a child, and this had done nothing but fuel his taste for the more exotic, passionate literature that played to the heart rather than the head. It is no surprise that the classical formula of Wilson should have little interested to Beckford compared to the emotionally charged work of Cozens.

Matthew Hargraves

Hargraves, Matthew, and Scott Wilcox. Great British Watercolors: from the Paul Mellon collection. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2007, pp. 46-48, no. 18

Travelling. J.M.W. Turner in Search of the Sublime and Picturesque (LWL - Museum für Kunst und Kultur, 2019-11-08 - 2020-01-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

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] [Exhibition Description]

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] [Exhibition Description]

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] [Exhibition Description]

William Beckford, 1760-1844 (Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2001-09-15 - 2002-05-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Beckford, 1760-1844 (The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 2001-09-15 - 2002-05-15) [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]

Classic Ground - British Artists and the Landscape of Italy, 1740-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 1981-07-29 - 1981-09-20) [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]

An exhibition of English drawings and water colors from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, February 18-April 1, 1962, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1962, p. 9, no. 21, NC228 U6 (YCBA) Copy 2 is on Mellon Shelf [YCBA]

John Baskett, English drawings and watercolors, 1550-1850, in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon , The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 1972, pp. 48-49, no. 63, NC228 B37+ (YCBA) [YCBA]

C.F. (Charles Francis) Bell, The Drawings And Sketches of John Robert Cozens, A Catalogue With An Historical Introduction , Volume of the Walpole Society, vol. 23, 1934-1935, p. 45, no. 142, pl. XIIa, N12 W35 A1 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Duncan Bull, Classic ground : British artists and the landscape of Italy, 1740-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1981, pp. 5, 6, 31, no. 20, ND1354.4 B85 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , 1,2, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, p.63, no. 64, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Graham Reynolds, English Landscape 1630-1850, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, p. 47, no. 75, pl. XIII, N1 A54 105:2 + (YCBA) [YCBA]

Kim Sloan, Alexander and John Robert Cozens, the poetry of landscape , Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1986, pp. 129,130, 138, pl. 143, NJ18 C83 S56 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Turner : horror and delight, Sandstein Verlag, Dresden, p. 98, no. 13, NJ18.T85 A12 2019b Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Andrew Wilton, The Art of Alexander and John Robert Cozens, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, p. 43, no. 96, pl. 39, 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. 48-49, no. 18, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

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