Born near Birmingham, David Cox was apprenticed to a painter of miniatures and subsequently became a scene painter at the Birmingham Theatre Royal in 1800. In 1804 he moved to London, where he studied with John Varley from 1804 to 1808. Cox first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1808 and established himself as a drawing master. He published Painting and Effect in Watercolours: From the First Rudiments to the Finished Picture, with Examples in Outline, Effect, and Colouring (1814), A Series of Progressive Lessons in Landscape Intended to Elucidate the Art of Landscape Painting in Water Colours (1816), and The Young Artists’ Companion (1825).
Often claimed as an English pre-Impressionist and pioneer, Cox was a great recorder of the fleeting nature of the weather, atmosphere, and light of the English countryside and coast and was interested in the overall effect of the image.1 Timothy Wilcox has commented on Cox’s attentiveness to “the open skies, the broad spaces, and the fresh breezes.”2 Cox enjoyed painting stretches of sand, as evidenced by his notable series of works depicting Lancaster Sands, Hastings Beach, and Rhyl Sands.3
This watercolor presents a solitary group on the beach near Rye, a small town in East Sussex, a few miles from the confluence of three rivers: the Rother, the Tillingham, and the Brede.4 The town was in one of the most remote and least populated areas of southeastern England. Cox accentuates the wide planes of the sky, land, and sea. Utilizing the white of the paper and the color blue, he suggests tiered cirrostratus clouds; the gray touches to their left hint at a change in weather. Stephen Daniels has suggested that Cox “encapsulates the condition of impermanence, not just the temporariness of atmospheric effect and the meteorological but also of life itself . . . the state of being, travel.”5
The viewpoint is low, typical of Cox’s compositions, making the figures in the scene somewhat level with the viewer. The artist often diminished human figures and objects. Yet, he treated details with sensitivity, as seen here in the clothes of the central figures, the basket upon the horse, and the horse’s shadow that subtly directs the viewer’s eye to the stooped figure within the tall grasses. On the left, Cox has delicately rendered the distant view of Rye. The structure at right was long thought to be a Martello tower, used for defense during the threat of invasion by Napoleon. Ten towers were situated near Rye at this time, and Cox portrayed them in other watercolors.6 However, here Cox has instead portrayed Cambert (formerly Winchelsea) Castle, based on its location and appearance, with its central tower surrounded by several shorter towers. It was a motif that Joseph Mallord William Turner also drew in a sketchbook.7 —Dena M. Woodall
Notes
1. See Iolo Williams, Early English Watercolours and Some Cognate Drawings by Artists Born Not Later than 1785 (Bath: Kingsmead Reprints 1970), 176, and Scott Wilcox, “The Work of the Mind,” in Sun, Wind, and Rain: The Art of David Cox, ed. Scott Wilcox (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 53.
2. See Timothy Wilcox, “English Watercolors of the River Thames by David Cox and Cornelius Varley,” Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 66 (2007): 23.
3. See David Cox, Lancaster Sands, 1844, watercolor over graphite with gouache on paper, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston; David Cox, Crossing Lancaster Sands, c. 1835, watercolor over graphite on wove paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection [B1981.25.2422]; David Cox, Hastings Beach, Sussex, 1828, watercolor on paper, National Gallery of Ireland [NGI.2066]; and David Cox, Rhyl Sands, c. 1850, watercolor on paper, Victoria and Albert Museum of Art, London [P.30-1930].
4. Other artists who depicted Rye include Thomas Girtin, Joseph Mallord William Turner, and John Varley. See Thomas Girtin, The Town of Rye, 1795, watercolor, British Museum, bequeathed by John Henderson, London [1878,1228.37]; Joseph Mallord William Turner, Rye, Sussex, c. 1823, watercolor, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff [NMW A 1742]; John Varley, Harlech Castle across the Traeth Mawr, watercolor, Metropolitan Museum of Art, purchase, PECO Foundation Gift, 2007, New York [2007.274].
5. “Travel was essential to Cox’s career, and he often liked traveling in stagecoaches. Cox would hire open carriages because he could stop to admire the view and make sketches.” See Stephen Daniels, Human Geography and the Art of David Cox (Nottingham: University of Nottingham, 2007), 17.
6. See the exhibition Air and Distance, Storm and Sunshine: Paintings, Watercolours, and Drawings by David Cox, Spink-Leger Pictures, London, March 3–26, 1999, cat. 10. During the 1803–5 Napoleonic invasion, Rye, Dover, and Chatham were the most likely ports to be invaded. Rye became the western command center for the Royal Military Canal. See Cox’s representation of a small defensive fort called a Martello tower in View of Martello Tower, with Shrimpers in the Foreground, no date, watercolor, Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, England, and Marine View with Martello Tower, c. 1830, watercolor, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester [1890.11].
7. Camber (formerly Winchelsea) Castle was built between 1512 and 1540 under Henry VIII when he was concerned about a 1538 treaty between France and Spain, making England more vulnerable to attack. It guarded Rye Harbor and the entrance to Camber, an important anchorage for ships waiting to enter Rye’s port. At the time Camber Castle was built, it overlooked a shallow sea on a shingle spit that protected the approach to Rye and Winchelsea; the shifting shoreline has left it far inland. Joseph Mallord William Turner made several sketches of Camber Castle. See Joseph Mallord William Turner, Camber Castle, with a Boat Aground, c. 1806–10, from Sussex Sketchbook, chalk and graphite on paper, Tate, Turner Bequest XCII 5 [DO5723]. See David Blayney Brown, ed., J. M. W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours (London: Tate Research Publications, 2012), https://www.tage.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/sussex-sketchbook-r1131028. The closest Martello tower for Cox’s depiction would have been one of the only two remaining towers, Martello #28, as indicated by the Historic England Registry. The shoreline would have been behind Cox if he was portraying this specific tower and looking toward Rye instead of to his right near Camber Castle, about a mile or less from Cox’s position. Thanks to Craig S. Calvert for his report on the location of the Martello towers, Camber Castle, and the city of Rye during Cox’s lifetime. See prints and drawings curatorial files, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Figures on the beach near Rye, Sussex
Bauer, Gérald. David Cox 1783–1859, précurseur des impressionnistes. Paris: Editions Anthèse, 2000.
Reynolds, Graham. English Watercolors: An Introduction. New York: New Amsterdam, 1988.
Wilcox, Scott, ed. Sun, Wind, and Rain: The Art of David Cox. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
Wilcox, Scott, and Christophe Newall. Victorian Landscape Watercolors. New York: Hudson Hills, 1992.
Williams, Iolo. Early English Watercolours and Some Cognate Drawings by Artists Born Not Later Than 1785. Bath, UK: Kingsmead Reprints, 1970.
Wilton, Andrew. “Review of David Cox, 1783–1859.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 131, no. 5,328 (November 1983): 780–81.
ProvenanceThe artist, 19th century; [London, Spink-Leger Pictures, 1999]; [Christie’s, London, British Art on Paper, November 21, 2002, lot 49]; Private collection, UK; [Andrew Clayton-Payne, London, by 2022]; purchased by the MFAH, 2022.