Nothing but light and dark masses: Alexander Cozens and landscape drawing
Keywords:
Alexander Cozens, Drawing theories and methods, Theory of sketching, Landscape drawing and painting, Blot method, 18th century art theory
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Abstract
During his lifetime, the painter and drawing master Alexander Cozens (1717-1786) published a series of manuals in which he explained his methods and formulas for learning to draw, mainly landscape scenes. The most popular of these was A New Method of Assisting the Invention in Drawing Original Compositions of Landscape (1785), in which he set out the most complete version of the original theory of the blot sketch that he had begun to develop more than twenty-five years earlier. Focusing on his manuals, this article will analyse Cozens’ didactic methods in detail, with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the logic and poetics behind them. This study will lead us to discover many details about the artist’s procedures and theories and will also lead us to reflect on the magic of the sketch.
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