On the Gulf of Salerno near Vietri

John Robert Cozens

September 1782 or later · Brush and watercolor over faint traces of graphite · Drawings and Prints

In May 1782, Cozens left England for the continent, employed by William Beckford as draughtsman. The party arrived in Italy via the Tyrol and reached Naples by July. On September 18th, the artist and his patron parted and Cozens moved south to Salerno. A number of views along the Gulf of Salerno occur in his sketchbooks from the journey. A pencil outline drawing inscribed "On the Gulf of Salerno -- near Vietri -- Sept. 27" on page 15 of the third "Beckford" sketchbook, now in the collection of the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, provides the skeleton of this watercolor, which was probably made several years later in England. Other watercolors and sketches of the same stretch of coast are preserved at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.

Artist

John Robert Cozens

Date

September 1782 or later

Medium

Brush and watercolor over faint traces of graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1907