# John Cousen artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/john-cousen/
Profile generated: 2026-05-16T21:56:15.804Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1804-02-19
- Death date: 1880-12-26
- Nationality: British
- Movements: 19th-century British reproductive engraving
- Common media: Steel engraving, Copper engraving

## About John Cousen

John Cousen (1804–1880) was an English reproductive printmaker and landscape engraver active in London during the Victorian era. Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, he trained under the engraver John Scott before establishing his own practice. Cousen is best known for producing steel-engraved landscapes after paintings by J.M.W. Turner and the Dutch Golden Age artist Aelbert Cuyp, contributing to the thriving 19th-century market for high-quality reproductive prints. He also taught his younger brother Charles Cousen, who followed him into the trade. Cousen's work appeared in illustrated gift annuals and travel publications that brought landscape imagery to a broad middle-class audience. He died in South Norwood, Croydon, in 1880.

## Common works and media

Cousen's output consists predominantly of landscape engravings on steel and copper plates, often reproducing compositions by J.M.W. Turner and Aelbert Cuyp. Typical formats include book-plate illustrations for gift annuals and travel volumes, as well as separately published folio prints. Subjects range from pastoral river scenes and coastal views to mountainous terrain and architectural landscapes. Collectors are most likely to encounter his work as single-sheet prints or as plates bound into illustrated editions from the mid-nineteenth century.

## Market and appraisal context

Cousen's engravings appear at auction mainly within Old Master and 19th-century print categories. Value depends on the fame of the source painting (Turner and Cuyp subjects attract the most interest), plate size, paper quality, impression state, and overall condition. Published plates from well-known gift books or travel series may carry modest premiums. Reproductive engravings are generally accessible to collectors at lower price points than original works by the painters Cousen interpreted, making condition and rarity of the specific impression the primary value drivers.

## Appraisily data basis

This Appraisily artist page combines identity research from Getty ULAN, RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, VIAF, and Wikidata with available auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are present.

## Sources

- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/492666
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6227331
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500103936
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/67380707/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no99024004
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cousen