John Robert Cozens

Probably Sir William Forbes, 6^th Bt of Pitsligo (1739-1806),

by family decent until,

sale, London, Sotheby's, 'Two Great Scottish Collections, 'Property from the Forbeses of Pitsligo and the Marquesses of Lothian', 28 March 2017, lot 78,

where acquired by present owner

In this watercolour, which is likely to date from 1791 or 1792 and is one of the largest that Cozens ever painted, the artist stands on the southern slopes of Monte Mario, close to the Villa Mellini, a 15^th century palace famous for its views and therefore popular with 18^th century Grand Tourists.¹ Below, under a gigantic sky, what seems like the whole of Rome is laid out before us. It is still early and with the heat of the day not yet upon us, the city appears quiet, observed from a distance, through the lens of soft light and the rising mists of morning.

In the foreground, three figures are engaged in an animated conversation, seemingly not paying attention to the majestic scene beyond. Cozens encourages the eye to travel backwards, through the green fields of the campagna, which are punctuated by cypress trees, umbrella pines and dense woodland. The city remains cloaked in semi-darkness and its famous buildings are picked out in smoky tones, against grey-white mists that rise - steadily - from the Tiber. In contrast, the sun’s rays have reached the walls of the Vatican as well as the mighty dome of St Peter’s, their monumental forms offset by the great trees in the foreground to the left and echoed, abstractly, by the Alban Hills that gently levitate in the far distance.

Cozens first travelled to Italy in 1776, while in the company of the antiquarian Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824). By November of that year, the pair were in Rome and Cozens soon met up with fellow British artists, Ozias Humphrey (1742-1810), Henry Fuseli (1742-1825), William Pars (1742-1782) and Thomas Jones (1742-1803). Captivated, he decided to stay and would only return to England in April 1779. In 1782 he embarked on a second tour to Italy, this time with the wealthy but melancholic collector, William Beckford (1760-1844). By July they had reached Rome but, as it was the height of the malarial season, the party moved quickly on to Naples. After a few months Cozens and Beckford went their separate ways and by December Cozens had returned to Rome, where he was to remain for almost a year.

An early owner of this watercolour was almost certainly Sir William Forbes, 6^th Bt of Pitsligo (1739-1806), who may well have acquired it directly from the artist in 1791 or 1792, and within whose family it remained until 2017 (see Provenance). Forbes was an eminent banker and scion of an ancient Scottish family, who had made a Grand Tour with his wife, Lady Elizabeth (1750-1802), and one of their five daughters, in the early 1790s. The couple were briefly in Rome in November-December 1792 and were to return, for a longer stay, between March and May 1793. Lodging first at the Hotel Margherita, which they found 'small, inconvenient and damp', they then moved to the Corso, to rooms that had previously been occupied by Mary, the Dowager Duchess of Ancaster (1730-1793).² Taking on Patrick Moir (1769-1810) as a guide, the party not only enjoyed viewing the city's great architectural and artistic sites, but also visited the studios of resident artists such as Antonio Canova (1757-1822), John Flaxman (1755-1826) and Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807). Finally, they relished Rome's social life, Sir William recording in his journal that 'we never needed to be at a loss where to spend our evenings.'³

The present watercolour is the largest of five known versions of this great view by Cozens. The others are to be found in the British Museum, London, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Morgan Library, New York and in a private collection.

We are very grateful to Timothy Wilcox for his help when cataloguing this lot.

^1.It is thought that Cozens only painted two larger watercolours: The Lake and Town of Nemi, Italy, London, Bonhams, 3 July 2024, lot 57; and The chasm at Delphi (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, acc. no. PD.3-2005.

^2.B. Ford (ed.), A Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy 1701-1800, New Haven 1997, p. 369

^3.National Library of Scotland, MS 1543, vol. VI, p. 98