Lot 137: JOHN ROBERT COZENS 1752-1799

FANO ON THE ADRIATIC

25 by 37.5 cm.; 10 by 15 in.

watercolour over traces of pencil, framed

PROVENANCE

James Orrock, R.W.S., his sale at Christie's, 4th June 1904, lot 191 (20 gns.to Agnew) as A Bay near Harlech;
James Duveen, his sale in these rooms, 12th July 1967, lot 229 as On the Coast of the Adriatic near Rimini;
The Rev. Cecil Cullingford;
Anonymous sale at Christie's, 14th December 1971, lot 32 as On the Coast of the Adriatic near Rimini;
purchased from Albany Gallery, London (as The Bay of Naples)

NOTE

Cozens' depictions of Italy and Switzerland are some of the most sublime works in the whole canon of English watercolours. With a brevity of touch, a highly restricted palette, and an assured sense of composition, he recreates the impact of his travels there in the early 1780s. This is not the Italy of bustling fiestas or classical ruins. It is the distilled response to the contours of the landscape and above all, to the quality of the light as it shifts across water and land.

All these qualities are to be recognised in the work here. The view is a stretch of the Adriatic coast in The Marche, with the town of Fano in the distance, silhouetted against the lilting line of hills. In the far distance a frieze of white, where the paper is left uncoloured, describes the beaches, now famous, lying beneath the soaring mountains and the sea. In contrast to that area's uninterrupted sunshine, the middle distance is full of the broken luminosity occasioned by the clouds to the left. The foreground is set in shadow, and here a group of travellers pause to take in the view from a grassy knoll etched with Cozens' characteristic bushes. Their way forward is indicated by a snake-like track running up the side of the adjacent hill to a perilous turn at the top. With an extraordinary economy of means, Cozens describes the scene - a description so intense that you can almost hear the water breaking on the long beach beneath the mountain side.

By 1782 when this watercolour was painted, Cozens was very conversant with the Italian countryside. He had first journeyed there with the celebrated connoisseur Richard Payne Knight in 1776, staying in the country for nearly three years. In 1782, he set out again, this time as part of William Beckford's suite, which also included the tutor Dr. Lettice, the physician Dr. Ehrhart, and the musician John Burton. Travelling via Innsbruch and the Tyrol, they arrived in Venice before proceeding onto Padua and then down the Adriatic coast. Cozens' sketchbooks from this tour have survived and are now in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. In the first book, on page 28 and dated June 23, is his pencil sketch on which this watercolour is based (see C.F.Bell and Thomas Girtin, 'The Drawings and Sketches of John Robert Cozens', The Walpole Society, 1934-5, vol.XXIII, p.54, no.222). In pencil and wash, the artist captured the scene (see fig.2), however, as is evident, this was just the start of the evolution of the finished work. Cozens subtly exaggerates the landscape as his vision matured: the distant mountain is made more monumental; the spit of land going out to sea is more prominent; and the foreground hill is made more abrupt, with a lone white bird flying up the cliff face to emphasise its vertical lines. He also introduces the group of travellers who share our delight in looking at the expansive view, so brilliantly recreated