DAVID COX, R.W.S.
(1783-1859)

 

The Mill

1853

watercolour heightened with white on textured paper,

26.6 x 36.8 cm

inscribed: David Cox 1853

P.281

A typical late, breezy drawing painted on the rough absorbent paper that Cox favoured as it enabled him to paint quickly and freely with a loaded brush. In a letter to his son dated 15 March 1850 Cox wrote: ‘My drawing upon the Scotch paper is so rough I fear I shall bring down all against me, but the paper has plagued me so I am very nervous’. Cox’s contemporaries complained of a ‘careless haste’ in his painting style and a sketchiness of finish. The textured paper would also contain dark flecks. In landscapes these could be hidden, but skies posed a problem; Cox’s response was ‘Oh, I just put wings to them, and then they fly away as birds’.

Cox was born near Birmingham, the son of a blacksmith. At fifteen he was apprenticed to a miniature painter named Fielder (Cox discovered his hanged body). He worked as a scene painter at the Birmingham Theatre Royal, while studying at night with Joseph Barber (c.1757-1811). By 1808 he was taking watercolour lessons from John VARLEY. In his early career he earned his living as a drawing-master. He retired to Harborne in Birmingham in 1841. During 1853, Cox had a slight stroke which permanently damaged his eyesight.

EJ/CB

PROVENANCE:                C.W.Dyson Perrins; sold by executors; Sotheby’s 22 April 1959, lot 48; P&D Colnaghi Ltd purchased on behalf of Gallery, April 1959.

EXHIBITIONS: D.H.Lawrence & the Visual Arts, Nottingham, Castle Museum, 1985, no.17; The Art of Seeing: John Ruskin and the Victorian Eye, Arizona, Phoenix Art Gallery and Indianapolis, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1993, fig.89, p.125.

REFERENCES: J. Egerton, English Watercolour Painting, 1979, pp.12-13, pl.40; G. Bauer, David Cox 1783-1859: Précurseur des Impressionistes ?, 2000, p.102.

Copyright © Trustees of Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford.

Extract taken from Watercolours and Drawings, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery by Evelyn Joll.