FDA-D.157-2010
Parts
Object number
FDA-D.157-2010
Object type
Identification
Title
Valley of Ober-Hasli (The Aare Gorge, Meiringen)
Pilkington
Pilkington
Title Type
assigned by cataloguer
collection
collection
Comments
Cozens travelled through Switzerland for the first time in August 1776, in the company of the young classical scholar and future connoisseur Richard Payne Knight. More than fifty washed drawings record their progress through the Alps, probably worked up from slight sketches made on the spot. The prototype for Cat. 47 is a drawing now in the Fitzwilliams Museum, Cambridge, numbered '31'. The Eton watercolour is dated 1778, and was presumably painted on commission for an unknow Grand Tourist while Cozens was in Rome, where he remained until 1779. The notably rugged treatment of the bare rock faces, and the illusory quality of the furthest bare cliff glimpsed through the gorge, which looks like ice, or even glass, are in marked contrast to the often sun-bathed vistas Cozens was then sketching on the outskirts of Rome. Here, he does away with every suggestion of vegetation (omitting the small fir trees present in the sketch and in another watercolour version now in the Bacon Collection), leaving only a mass of tangled branches and the pull of the boat in the river as indications of the overwhelming power of the natural forces at work in this inhospitable landscape.
Other number
Pi 244
Description
Dimensions
height (actual size): 474mm
width (actual size): 351mm
width (actual size): 351mm
Inscription
Inscribed, verso, 'In the Canton of Bern / Switzerland / J R. Cozens 1778'
Materials & techniques note
Indian ink and watercolour over traces of pencil; watermark 'J WHATMAN'
Production
Person
Cozens, John Robert, 1752 - 1797 (Artist)
Date
1778
History and association
Object history note
Provenance: Collection of Mrs Dawbarn[?]; sold through Sotheby's on 31st July 1946 (Lot 58); with The Fine Art Society; collection of Alan Pilkington; by whom bequeathed to Eton College in 1973
Exhibited: 'A Genius for Watercolour', Christie’s, London, 6 to 24 January 2003, catalogue number 47; 'Watercolours from the Eton College Collections', Verey Gallery, Eton College, 24 November 2018 to 24 February 2019; 'Humphrey Ocean: Fresh as Paint', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 9 June to 30 October 2022, catalogue number 3
Exhibited: 'A Genius for Watercolour', Christie’s, London, 6 to 24 January 2003, catalogue number 47; 'Watercolours from the Eton College Collections', Verey Gallery, Eton College, 24 November 2018 to 24 February 2019; 'Humphrey Ocean: Fresh as Paint', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 9 June to 30 October 2022, catalogue number 3
Previous ownership
Pilkington, Alan, 1879 - 1973: Bequeathed to Eton by Alan Pilkington, 1973
Dawbarn, Mrs: ? Mrs Dawbarn; with Sotheby's 31st July 1946 (lot 58); with The Fine Art Society
Dawbarn, Mrs: ? Mrs Dawbarn; with Sotheby's 31st July 1946 (lot 58); with The Fine Art Society
References
• Ryan, H., Hidden Treasures, W.S. Fine Art exhibition catalogue, 2010 (p. 28, no 9)
• Wilcox, T., A Genius for Watercolour; Watercolours from the Eton College Collection, Christie's exhibition catalogue, London, 2003 (pp. 56-57, no. 47)
• Quarrie, P., Treasures of Eton College Library: 550 years of collecting, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1990 (pp. 112-113, no. 226)
• Sloane, K., Alexander and John Robert Cozens: The Poetry of Landscape, New Haven & London, 1986 (p. 122, no. 135)
• Pilkington, A., Loan exhibition of early English watercolours, drawings by Old Masters, etchings & engravings from the collection of Alan D. Pilkington: in aid of the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, Colnaghi & Co, London, 1958 (no. 44)
• Bell, C.F. & Girtin, T., 'The drawings and sketches of J.R. Cozens', Walpole Society XXXIII, 1934-5, cat. 28Aiii
• Wilcox, T., A Genius for Watercolour; Watercolours from the Eton College Collection, Christie's exhibition catalogue, London, 2003 (pp. 56-57, no. 47)
• Quarrie, P., Treasures of Eton College Library: 550 years of collecting, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1990 (pp. 112-113, no. 226)
• Sloane, K., Alexander and John Robert Cozens: The Poetry of Landscape, New Haven & London, 1986 (p. 122, no. 135)
• Pilkington, A., Loan exhibition of early English watercolours, drawings by Old Masters, etchings & engravings from the collection of Alan D. Pilkington: in aid of the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, Colnaghi & Co, London, 1958 (no. 44)
• Bell, C.F. & Girtin, T., 'The drawings and sketches of J.R. Cozens', Walpole Society XXXIII, 1934-5, cat. 28Aiii
