Drawings of David Cox

by A. J. Finberg

To eke out his meagre resources, Cox now turned his attention to teaching. He was fortunate enough to attract the attention of Colonel the Hon. H. Windsor (afterwards Earl of Plymouth), who took many lessons from him, and introduced and recommended him to several families of distinction. But the times were bad for artists, and the newly married couple must have found it hard work to make both ends meet. From some extracts from the artist’s account book, which Mr. Solly has printed, we learn that Cox’s prices for lessons ranged from 7s. to 10s. Between 1811 and 1814 the prices he got for his drawings ranged from half-a-guinea up to five guineas. His average price seems to have been about a guinea a drawing; but on November 30, 1811, he sold a dozen for 8s. each.

Nearly every year during his residence in London, Cox made a journey to visit his old father and his other friends at Birmingham. The sketch book he used on his 1810 visit is still in existence, and [Plate XVIII]., a drawing of some half-timbered houses “near Birmingham,” represents the contents of one of its pages. The drawings are all made on rough blue paper; and among the other subjects contained in this singularly interesting book are some striking studies of scenes down a mine at Dudley, and sketches at and near Kenilworth. The handling is not so loose as in Cox’s later work; but what the drawings lack in freedom is more than compensated by their directness and admirable restraint, as our reproduction amply proves.

During the period of the artist’s early married life he had many difficulties to contend with. The long war with France had depressed trade, made living dear, and people generally had little to spare for articles of luxury. But Cox worked away steadily at his art, forming himself on the best models. This was the time when Turner was painting what many artists consider are among the finest landscapes that have ever been produced by an English artist. His Sun rising through Vapour, the picture which now hangs in the National Gallery beside the Claudes, was exhibited in 1807, the Spithead in 1809, and the superb Windsor, Abingdon, Greenwich, and Frosty Morning, were all painted and exhibited within the next few years. The first number of the “Liber,” too, appeared in 1807; and as one turns over the plates that were issued in the earlier numbers—designs like the Flint Castle, Barn and Straw Yard, Pembury Mill, Morpeth, and Lock and Mill—it is easy to imagine the influence they must have exerted on the formation of Cox’s art. We have it on Mr. Solly’s authority that “no artist appreciated Turner’s genius more than Cox did,” and he illustrates this with a charming anecdote of Cox’s reproduction from memory of Turner’s picture of Kingston Bank (now in the National Gallery). Mr. Solly also states that Cox was one of the earliest subscribers to the “Liber,” and he adds, “that he did so at this time, when his means were so straitened, is a proof how highly he prized this admirable work.” The remark is perfectly just, though it may be worth remembering that those were the times when ordinary issues of the “Liber” were still to be had for a modest 15s. for a part containing five plates.

With such models before his eyes it is not surprising to find that Cox’s work at this period is characterised by a breadth of style, a feeling of repose, and an absence of any attempt at superficial prettiness or drawing-master dexterity. But though Cox became a member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colour in 1813, and contributed no less than seventeen drawings to its Exhibition, few of them found purchasers. In the summer of this year Cox was glad to accept an appointment as teacher of drawing at the Military College at Farnham. But the work and military discipline to which he had to submit proved irksome, and at the end of a term or two he was allowed to retire. Soon after this, in 1814, Cox went to Hereford, having accepted a post as drawing-master at a young ladies’ school. This new appointment carried with it the magnificent salary of £100 a year, but he had to teach only twice a week, and he was at liberty to take private pupils.

The removal to Hereford, where the artist remained for thirteen years, is rightly regarded by Cox’s biographers as an important event in his life. He went there penniless, having indeed to borrow £40 to defray the expenses of his removal, and he left there with at least a thousand pounds to the good. The money, it is true, was amassed slowly and with difficulty, and it was earned rather by incessant teaching than by original artistic productivity. But the town was pleasantly situated; the Wye winds round the city walls, and Wales is not far distant. Cox had opportunities for familiarising himself with all the details of rustic business—with ploughing, haymaking, reaping, and sowing; and in his constant journeyings to and fro for the purpose of giving lessons his memory became stored with images of all kinds of weather and all kinds of effects.

All the coloured reproductions in the present volume represent drawings made during the artist’s residence in Hereford. The Chepstow Bridge and Castle ([Plate XII].) was probably one of the results of Cox’s first sketching tour after his removal, and this very drawing may possibly have formed one of the exhibits which he sent to the Society of Painters in Water-Colour in 1816. [Plate XXIII]. may represent the sketch made for the picture of Goodrich Castle on the Wye, which the artist exhibited in 1819. In both the drawings, as in the unfinished Frontispiece, the colour scheme is less severe than in the earlier Westminster. They are less like Girtin’s than like early Cotmans; and though they lack something of Cotman’s fastidiousness of selection, and the aristocratic charm of his draughtsmanship and design, they have a sobriety, reserve and seriousness of their own which must make them objects of delight to their fortunate possessor. The slightness of the execution of Low Tide ([Plate XXXIV].) is no hindrance to the poignant expression of its sentiment. Unfortunately, it has not been found convenient to reproduce the magnificent—albeit unfinished—water-colour, entitled Autumn Woods, in its original colours. The half-tone reproduction ([Plate XIX].), however, is useful as a suggestion of the simple dignity that reigns in this beautiful drawing—assuredly one of the finest works produced during the artist’s residence in Hereford.

It is interesting to learn that the production in great quantities of small drawings like those we have reproduced in colour, and his onerous duties of teaching, did not exhaust Cox’s energies. At that time Cox was something of a politician. Very naturally he took great delight in the raciness and full-flavoured eloquence of Cobbett’s “Register”; and in 1820, when Joseph Hume visited Hereford, Cox, as one of the advanced Liberals of the locality, formed one of the committee of reception, and with two others subscribed to present the reformer with a hogshead of the best Herefordshire cider. A public dinner was organised at which to make the presentation, and on his return home in the evening Cox decided to celebrate so important a day by planting a number of acorns and chestnuts in his garden. But Cox’s reforming zeal was not always satisfied with such unaggressive results. As a protest against the policy of the Government which led to the imposition of high taxes on tea, beer and other articles of domestic consumption, he determined to slake his thirst with non-dutiable beverages. He religiously drank Hunt’s roasted corn for a time, but finding the concoction unpalatable he invented a beverage of his own. He and his unfortunate family drank a concoction made from new hay in place of tea-leaves as a morning beverage; but, in the long run, the iniquitous revenue triumphed.

Even now, however, we have not come to the end of Cox’s multifarious activities during this period. Besides being an amateur agitator and gardener, a prolific artist in water colour, and an overworked teacher, he seems to have turned author as well. In 1814 he published an educational work on landscape art, called: “A Treatise on Landscape Painting and Effect in Water-Colours, from the first Rudiments to the finished Picture, with Examples in Outline Effect and Colouring.” This was illustrated by a number of soft-ground etchings. It was followed, in 1816, by “Progressive Lessons in Landscape for Young Beginners,” a series of twenty-four soft-ground etchings without letterpress; and in 1825, his “Young Artist’s Companion, or Drawing-Book of Studies,” appeared. It was perhaps as a preliminary study for one of the illustrations to these volumes that the pen and ink drawing reproduced in [Plate XIV]. was made. At any rate the interest of these publications depends rather upon the illustrations than upon the letterpress, many of the etchings containing the first ideas of subjects which later had great success as water-colours; the etchings of Changing Pasture and Going to the Mill, for example, furnished the subjects of some of Cox’s latest paintings. It has also been rumoured that Cox was not entirely responsible for the letterpress, being indebted for assistance in its composition to some unknown “clergyman.” However this may be, it is pretty certain that the opinions must have been those which Cox himself held. And as the opinions of a great artist as to the aim and scope of his own art are always of interest it may be advisable to quote a passage or two from these books, even though some other hand may have corrected the artist’s grammar and inflated his periods.

In the “Treatise” Cox writes: “The principal art of Landscape Painting consists in conveying to the mind the most forcible effect which can be produced from the various classes of scenery.... This is the grand principle upon which pictorial excellence hinges, as many pleasing objects, the combination of which renders a piece perfect, are frequently passed over by an observer because the whole of the composition is not under the influence of a suitable effect. Thus a cottage or a village scene requires a soft and simple admixture of tones calculated to produce pleasure without astonishment. On the contrary, the structures of greatness and antiquity should be marked by a character of awful sublimity, suited to the dignity of the subjects, indenting on the mind a reverential and permanent impression, and giving at once a corresponding and unequivocal grandeur to the picture. Much depends on the classification of the objects, which should wear a magnificent uniformity, and much on the colouring, the tones of which should be deep and impressive.

“In the selection of a subject from nature the student should ever keep in view the principal object which induced him to make the sketch, whether it be mountains, a castle, group of trees, a cornfield, river scene, or any other object. The prominence of this leading feature in the piece should be duly supported throughout; the character of the picture should be derived from it; every other object introduced should be subservient to it, and the attraction of the one should be the attraction of the whole. The union of too great a variety of parts tends to destroy, or at least to weaken, the predominance of that which ought to be the principal of the composition, and which the student, when he comes to the colouring, should be careful to characterise by turning upon it the strongest light. All objects which are not in character with the scenes should be most carefully avoided, as the introduction of any unnecessary object is sure to be attended with injurious consequences. This must prove the necessity of becoming thoroughly acquainted with and obtaining a proper feeling of the subject. The picture should be complete and perfect in the mind before it is ever traced upon canvas. Such force and expression should be displayed as would render the effect at the first glance intelligible to the observer. Merely to paint is not enough, for when no interest is felt nothing is more natural than that none should be conveyed.”