Castel Sant-Angelo, Rome

An imposing fortress and prison on the banks of the river Tiber, the Castel Sant’Angelo was a favourite subject for foreign artists working in Rome in the eighteenth century. Cozens has here stripped away incidental detail, emphasising instead the castle’s forbidding bulk and its reflection in the water. Cozens’s sombre palette and expressive, painterly handling of watercolour strongly influenced younger British artists.