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Creator:
David Cox, 1783–1859
Title:

On the Medway

Date:
early 1850s
Medium:
Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on heavy textured Scotch paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 19 x 29 1/8 inches (48.3 x 74 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.6129
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
boats | correctional institution | flags | hulks (utility and service vessels) | marine art | men | prison | river | seascape | ships
Associated Places:
Medway | United Kingdom
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:8655
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Like On Lancaster Sands, Low Tide (cat. 88), On the Medway belonged to William Stone Ellis. Ellis's friendship with Cox and his role as executor after Cox's death may help to explain such a large composition handled with such economy and boldness. The work may be unfinished, but it is easy to imagine Cox's enjoyment, and Ellis's appreciation, of broad touches of watercolor on the rough, rich surface of the "Scotch" paper. Views of the Medway and of the hulks - retired warships serving as floating prisons - moored there appear in Cox's watercolors of 1820s. This watercolor is one of a number of instances of Cox returning in his later years to subjects and compositions from much earlier in his career.

Scott Wilcox

Scott Wilcox, Sun, wind, and rain : the art of David Cox, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008, pg. 217, cat. no. 96, NJ18 .C829 W542 + Oversize (YCBA)

Sun, Wind, and Rain - The Art of David Cox (Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 2009-01-31 - 2009-05-03) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Sun, Wind, and Rain - The Art of David Cox (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-10-16 - 2009-01-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Masters of the Sea - British Marine Watercolors (National Maritime Museum, 2005-08-25 - 2005-10-25) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Masters of the Sea - British Marine Watercolors (Yale Center for British Art, 1987-06-10 - 1987-08-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Roger Quarm, Masters of the sea : British marine watercolours, , Phaidon, Oxford, UK, 1987, pp. 81, 94, no. 112, pl. 62, ND2272 G7 Q73 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Scott Wilcox, Sun, wind, and rain : the art of David Cox, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008, pp. 102, 216-7, no. 96, fig. 60, NJ18 .C829 W542 + Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]


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