David Cox the Elder

An idyllic scene of country labor takes place beneath a bright summer sky dappled with windswept clouds. Following the conventions of Dutch landscape art, David Cox set the horizon line low, allowing the sky to occupy almost two thirds of the sheet. This division is reinforced by his broad application of monochrome washes for the sky-where the clouds are reserved white paper-and short dense brushstrokes for the foreground. One of the most highly skilled watercolorists of his time, Cox here exhibits his particular sensitivity in rendering atmospheric effects.

Cox’s reputation rests on his atmospheric watercolors of Britain, particularly its meadows and moorlands under a broad expanse of sky. Vigorous, broad brushstrokes capture a bright sky filled with billowing clouds here. Quick, abbreviated small brushwork convincingly renders details in the foreground, where he has also scraped back into the white paper to add radiant highlights.