Frederick Schiller Cozzens

1846-1928

American (New York, New York)

Frederic Schiller Cozzens started his career in the 1860's as a maritime artist always painting in watercolor. By 1883 his work was so much in demand that he decided to pursue other mediums and to expand the availability to the public. In 1884 Cozzens found a way to popularize his work in the form of sets of color lithographs. His training and technique in watercolor lent itself to the medium of lithography. The first of these sets was a brilliant series of twenty-six yachting prints published by Charles Scribner's & Sons of New Yorkmentitled American Yachts, Their Clubs and Races. They were published using a new color lithography technique "chromolithography" which allowed all the colors to be printed rather than the earlier use of hand-coloring. This series of twenty-six prints is accompanied by a separate text written by Lieutenant James Douglas Jerrold Kelley, which describes in detail each scene represented.