English painter David Cox (1783 –1859) was renowned for his fresh, lively, paintings capturing the serenity of weather and light in the English and Welsh countryside.
Born in Birmingham, Cox began work at the age of fifteen when he was apprenticed to a local painter. A few years later, he worked as a scenery painter at Birmingham Theatre Royal and Astley's Theatre. This was when he truly found his calling.
David Cox (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
In 1804, Cox went to London and began taking lessons from renowned watercolorist, John Varley (1778-1842). In the years to follow, he worked on many watercolor paintings before experimenting with oil paintings later on in his career. Many of his landscapes in oils found him much appreciation, particularly Rhyl Sands which he painted in 1854, at the age of seventy-one. However, the artist didn’t abandon watercolors and continued to work with them throughout his career.
There was a boldness and freedom in Cox’s landscape artworks that were very rarely found in scenery paintings of his time. His works have inspired generations of landscape and nature artists and will continue to do so for years to come. Let’s take a look at some of David Cox’s most noteworthy paintings.
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