Sun, Wind and Rain: The Art of David Cox

Edited by Scott Wilcox

Essays by Peter Bower, Charles Nugent, Victoria Osborne, Greg Smith, and Stephen Wildman

Published by the Yale Center for British Art and Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery in association with Yale University Press

272 pages, 11 x 9 1/2 inches, 220 illustrations, cloth, ISBN 978-0300117448

Publication date: November 25, 2008

Description

Born in Birmingham, England, in 1783, David Cox was destined to become a major figure in the linked worlds of landscape painting and watercolor painting in the first half of the nineteenth century. Remarkably, no significant study of the artist has been undertaken in more than a century. This beautifully illustrated volume focuses much-needed attention on Cox, filling in the details of his biography and illuminating his contributions to British landscape painting. Cox’s widely known Sun, Wind, and Rain, painted in 1845, is emblematic of his concern with the representation of light and atmosphere and weather. He was unparalleled in his ability to capture the effects of wind and weather. Scott Wilcox’s chapter in this book investigates Cox’s artistic identity and his legacy. Other chapters address such topics as Birmingham’s cultural milieu; myths about Cox’s life; the papers he chose; his painting in oils; and the fakes, forgeries, and misattributions that have challenged attempts to identify his oeuvre with certainty.