After taking drawing lessons from Joseph Barber (1757/8–1811) in Birmingham, David Cox worked briefly as an apprentice to a painter of lockets and snuff-boxes named Fieldler. This was followed about 1800 by a longer period painting scenery for the New Theatre, Birmingham. On the promise of similar employment at Astley’s Amphitheatre in Lambeth, Cox travelled to London in 1804, but when this came to nothing he decided to make his name as a watercolour painter. He began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1805 and from 1809 until its demise in 1812 with the Associated Artists in Water-Colours, of which he became both member and president in 1810. He was elected an Associate of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1812 and within a month had advanced to full membership. He remained a loyal supporter of the Society and a regular contributor to its exhibitions for the rest of his life.
During his first years in London, Cox sought instruction from John Varley. While it appears that he had no more than a few lessons, Varley’s broad wash technique, deep, clear colour and solidly structured compositions were predominant influences on Cox’s early style. The works of his first decade in London were picturesque rural subjects and occasional imitations and pastiches of classical landscapes, such as In Windsor Park (1807; London, Victoria & Albert Museum), based loosely on a model by Gaspard Dughet.
Cox relied largely on teaching to support himself and his family. By 1808 he was taking pupils, and in 1813 the first of his drawing-manuals began coming out in parts. Following a brief and unsatisfactory period as drawing-master at Farnham Military Staff College, Cox accepted a teaching position at Miss Croucher’s School for Young Ladies in Hereford and moved there in 1814.
During the 1820s Cox produced several ambitious large-scale exhibition watercolours, notably George IV Embarking for Scotland from Greenwich (Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery), which was exhibited at the Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1823. In these works he tackled new subjects or sought to give definite form to the types of classical–pastoral composition that had always formed part of his output. Under the influence of Turner and Richard Parkes Bonington, his colours became brighter and his handling more varied, with broad washes in the manner of Varley giving way to masses of individual brushstrokes. Three visits to the Continent—to the Low Countries in 1826, to Calais, Amiens and Paris in 1829, and to coastal France in 1832—resulted in vibrant pencil and wash sketches, but, with the exception of his numerous treatments of the coastal scenery of Calais and Dieppe, he made little use of them in his exhibition watercolours.
At the beginning of 1827 Cox and his family moved back to London. In the 1830s he contributed to the genre of the historical costume piece with a series of watercolours set mostly in Haddon Hall and Hardwick Hall. He also developed what would become his most popular and frequently repeated motifs: market people crossing Lancaster Sands and a mounted figure entering a hayfield. Having made many sketching excursions to Wales, he provided illustrations for Thomas Roscoe’s Wanderings and Excursions in North Wales (1836) and a later companion volume on South Wales. Cox drew much of his later subject-matter from the mountainous landscape of North Wales in the vicinity of Bettws-y-Coed, which he visited yearly between 1844 and 1856.
Cox seldom painted in oils but in the later 1830s began experimenting with the medium, taking lessons from William James Müller. In order to devote more time to his new pursuit, Cox retired from his teaching practice in June 1841 and moved to Harborne, outside Birmingham. While his oils often achieve the freshness and immediacy of his watercolours, he had difficulty in getting his oil paintings accepted in London, and they were exhibited only in the provinces.
Cox’s watercolours of the 1840s reveal a bolder technique. Although he maintained the distinction between sketches and finished watercolours, the distance between the two narrowed considerably. The finished works were frequently painted on a rough Scottish wrapping paper, and his compositions became simpler and more schematic. Effects of storm and wind predominated, as in the large and impressive Beeston Castle, Cheshire (1849; London, British Museum). While frequently deploring the looseness and sketchiness of his handling, critics admired his depth and power.
In June 1853 a stroke left his vision and coordination impaired, seriously limiting the amount of new work he could undertake; his final works show increasing suppression of detail. On the Moors, Near Bettws-y-Coed, also known as The Challenge (London, Victoria & Albert Museum), exhibited in 1856, shows his late watercolour style at its most concentrated and powerful.
Cox’s son, David Cox the younger (1809–85), also a landscape painter in watercolours, modelled his style on that of his father, as well as assisting with his teaching and taking over his father’s pupils at the time of his retirement to Harborne. After being with the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours between 1841 and 1846, he became an Associate of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1848.
Writings
A Treatise on Landscape Painting and Effect in Water Colours (London, 1813–14, rev. 2/1840–41); Progressive Lessons on Landscape for Young Beginners (London, 1816); The Young Artist’s Companion (London, 1819–20, rev. 2/1825)
Collections
Cox is represented in the following collections: Victoria & Albert Museum, London; British Museum, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, amongst others.
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