View of the Villa Lante on the Janiculum in Rome. Artist: John Robert Cozens (British, London 1752-1797 London). Dimensions: sheet: 9 15/16 x 14 1/2 in. (25.3 x 36.8 cm). Date: 1782-83.Like many eighteenth-century British artists, John Robert Cozens traveled to Italy to sketch the landscape. Working en plein air--typically in graphite or black chalk--he captured the essential forms, then colored his sketches with watercolor washes either on the spot, in his Italian lodgings, or sometimes, upon his return to Britain. Cozens made this watercolor of the Villa Lante, on the Janiculum hill outside the ancient walls of Rome for William Beckford, the wealthy author, collector, and aesthete whom he accompanied to Italy in 1782-83. By omitting hard outlines, blotting brushstrokes, and articulating details of foliage and architecture with delicate touches of color, the artist achieved a soft, luminous effect. The low viewpoint causes the buildings to appear dramatically silhouetted against the