Plate 15 c. 1785

Editor: Here we have Alexander Cozens' "Plate 15", a landscape print. It looks almost like an abstract inkblot at first glance. What do you see in this, something beyond just ink? Curator: It’s true, it’s like peering into the soul of a landscape, isn’t it? Cozens called these blots ‘aids to the imagination’, a starting point. Do you feel that pull, that invitation to complete the image? Editor: Absolutely, I begin to see rocky crags, perhaps, or storm clouds gathering on the horizon? Curator: Precisely! He’s handing us the brush, urging us to co-create. It makes you wonder where the landscape ends, and we begin. A collaboration, centuries across, in ink and imagination. Editor: That's a really beautiful way to look at it. I feel like I'm part of the artwork now.