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Cox’s interest in copying and learning from the great seventeenth-century masters of landscape painting, mentioned by his biographers in regard to his early enthusiasm for the works of Gaspard Dughet, was not confined to the beginning of his career. This copy of the painting by Nicolas Poussin in Sir George Beaumont’s collection was probably painted in the autumn of 1821, when the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy. Cox was not the only artist interested in copying the painting; on 20 September John Constable mentioned the painting in a letter to his friend and patron John Fisher:
There is a noble N. Poussin at the Academy—a solemn, deep, still, summer’s noon—with large umbrageous trees, & a man washing his feet at a fountain near them—through the breaks of the trees is mountain scenery & clouds collecting about them with the most enchanting effects possible—indeed it is the most affecting picture I almost ever stood before. It cannot surely be saying too much when I assert that his landscape is full of religious & moral feeling, & shows how much of his own nature God has implanted in the mind of man.… I should like, & will if possible possess a fac simile of it. I must make time—the opportunity will not happen again.
Constable does not seem to have produced a copy.

Gallery label for Sun, Wind, and Rain - The Art of David Cox (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-10-16 - 2009-01-04)