It was essentially from the standpoint of the landscape painter that he approached his teaching. His “Treatise” was intended to guide the student “in the selection of appropriate effects of nature,” or in other words, to point the way to a proper understanding of nature’s subtleties. Cox did not believe in an easy and convenient formula; he did not use one himself and he had no wish to impose it upon others. In this his attitude was partly temperamental and partly, no doubt, due to the fact that, unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not spend his earlier years in learning the conventions of the topographical draughtsman—he was a translator and an interpreter, not merely a copyist, and although his interpretation was eminently a true one, its truth appeared in his realisation of the great fundamentals, not in the laborious statement of local trivialities. He expressed this himself on one occasion when the committee of the Water-Colour Society had complained that some paintings of his were “too rough”—he wrote, “They forget that these are the work of the mind, which I consider very far before portraits of places.”

This faith that painting should be the work of the mind, and of a mind so stored with impressions of nature that it would be able infallibly to recognise what was the way in which each aspect of nature should be treated, is very clearly demonstrated in his “Treatise.” Read between the lines of its practical advice the book, indeed, is an eloquent assertion of a master’s creed, and as such it is instructive not only to the student who wishes to profit by its technical hints but also to the judges of art who are anxious to appreciate the principles of which David Cox and his greater contemporaries were masterly exponents.

There is much in the text that explains these principles and defines the manner in which they should be applied. For instance, when Cox dwells upon “the necessity of becoming thoroughly acquainted with, and of obtaining a proper feeling of, the subject,” and when he says that “the picture should be complete and perfect in the mind before it is even traced upon the canvas,” he is simply advocating that first and most vital essential in all artistic effort, accurate and intelligent observation.

Again, when he insists that “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,” and adds that “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 subject introduced should be subservient to it; and the attraction of the one should be the attraction of the whole,” he is only pointing out the necessity for orderly and logical design. His arguments, too, that the sentiment of the subject should be reflected in the manner of its treatment, that “such force and expression should be displayed as would render the effect, at the first glance, intelligible to the observer,” and that the right relation should be scrupulously maintained between the leading object in the composition and the less prominent accessories, are wholly inspired by the belief that a sense of balance and proportion are as indispensable to the student as the power to see and to think about what he sees.

Further, what he has to say about the need for exactness in the preparatory stages of a painting is most significant, as it shows how much importance he attached to systematic accomplishment and steady progression from one stage of the work to another. But here also the foundation must be observation—the student “must possess a clear conception of his subject” because upon that depends the perfection of his outline, and “it will be necessary for him to be particular in his designation of the outline” because only in that way will he be able to proceed to his own satisfaction and convey a definite and correct idea to the observer. Cox very rightly claims that “he who devotes his time to the completion of a perfect outline, when he has gained this point, has more than half finished his piece: while the author of a slovenly outline creates for himself an infinity of trouble, in order to avoid additional errors in the colouring of his subjects: and after all his efforts, finds it impossible to produce a picture perfect in any one part,” and he adds some valuable suggestions as to the way in which this perfect outline—by which he means simply certainty and expressiveness of draughtsmanship—should be obtained. Always, however, he asserts that the way to success lies only through persistent endeavour and unfailing consistency of purpose—“if the mind be fixed and sincere in pursuit of the art, difficulties will be easily surmountable: they will rather quicken than damp the desire for improvement,” and “the accomplishment of one task will only give additional stimulus for the performance of another” are essential articles in the creed which he professed and practised throughout his life.

In fact, he regarded art as the intellectual result of a visual exercise and to obtain this result he prescribed a rigorous discipline. His teaching is all the more worthy of attention now because it provides an antidote to the sloppy conventionalism which is poisoning much of the art of to-day. There were no affectations about David Cox, and the poses of our modern artists of the “advanced” school would have seemed to him particularly offensive. Yet, he was himself a pioneer, and in some ways a rebel; but in breaking new ground he was seeking to make progress by overcoming the difficulties of art and his rebellion was against limitations which he knew to be unreasonable. His book is proof enough that he would have had no sympathy with reactionaries who make a pretence of primitive simplicity so that they can shirk the labour of learning their craft; and all that he has included in it shows that to him that art only was right which was earnest, sincere, and honest, and unquestioning in its worship of nature.

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.
————
BY
D A V I D C O X.
————
LONDON:
Printed for and published by S. and J. FULLER, at the Temple of Fancy, RATHBONE PLACE;
And sold by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Bees, Orme, and Brown; Sherwood, Neely, and Jones; and Gale and Curtis, Paternoster-Row, Ackermann, Strand,
and by all Booksellers in Town and Country.
1813.
PRICE 7s. 6d.
Facsimile of the cover of the original edition, published in 1813