A Blot-Lake with Boat, Surrounded by Trees
1750–86
Medium
Graphite, brush and black ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 5/16 × 8 3/16 in. (16 × 20.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1930
Accession Number
30.49.9
Tags
About this artwork
A Blot-Lake with Boat, Surrounded by Trees by Alexander Cozens, 1750–86. Created in Graphite, brush and black ink, this work exemplifies the artistic practices and cultural values of its period. The piece reflects the technical skills and aesthetic sensibilities characteristic of its historical and cultural context. As part of the Drawings and Prints collection, it contributes to our understanding of artistic development and cultural expression. The work serves as both an aesthetic object and a ...
Art Historical Context
Alexander Cozens's *A Blot-Lake with, Surrounded by Trees (1750–86) is a delicate drawing in graphite, brush, and black ink, measuring just 6 5/16 × 8 3/16 inches. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints collection, this intimate landscape captures a serene watery scene—a lake with a small boat nestled among encircling trees—ev the quiet beauty of nature. Cozens, an innovative 18th-century artist of Russian origin who worked in England, was renowned for his experimental approach to landscape drawing. The title hints at Cozens's signature "blot" technique, a method he po...
About the Artist
Alexander Cozens
Alexander Cozens (1717–1786) was a pioneering British landscape painter in watercolours, born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to English shipbuilder Richard Cozens, who served Peter the Great—the tsar even stood as Alexander's godfather. Educated in England from age ten, he returned to Russia before embarking on a formative journey in 1746, sailing to Italy where he worked in the studio of the esteem...