COZENS, JOHN ROBERT (c. 1752-1797), English land scape painter in watercolours, born in London. His father, Alex ander Cozens, said to have been the natural son of Peter the Great and an Englishwoman from Deptford, after having studied art in Italy, came to England in 1746, was drawing master at Eton from 1763 to 1768 and published several treatises on art. The watercolours of J. R. Cozens are spirited impressionist sketches, rendering fine atmospheric effects by means of a few monochrome tints. They are free from the traditional laws of composition, which governed the art of that time. J. R. Cozens was, therefore, a precursor of Girtin and Turner in the British school of watercolour painting. Turner confessed to have learned more from Cozens' "Landscape with Hannibal in his March over the Alps, showing his Army the Fertile Plains of Italy," exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1776, than from any other picture. Cozens visited Italy twice, in 1776, and again in 1782 with William Beckford. On these trips he executed numerous sketches in pen and monochrome wash. He died in 1797, having spent the last three years of his life in a lunatic asylum. A collection of his watercolours are at the Victoria and Albert Museum ; others in private ownership were exhibited at the Grafton Gallery in 1911. The British Museum has 54 drawings by Alexander Cozens, which were lost on his journey from Italy to England, and were recovered by his son in Florence 3o years later.