Alexander Cozens (Russia 1717-1786 London)

Dateable to the first half of the 1760s. The high level of finish and the accompanying inscriptions suggest that they relate to one of Cozens' publications; either finished examples of the 1759 Essay to Facilitate the Inventing of Landskip Composition or in preparation for the 1765 A Treatise on Perspective and Rules for Shading by Invention, which does not survive in its completed form. Cozens executed finished examples to illustrate his publications, see K. Sloan, Alexander and John Roberts Cozens, The Poetry of Landscape, New Haven and London, 1986, p. 44, figs. 51 and 52. These works may have been used by his students to copy from. Their importance however relates to his publications which were continually evolving.