On Lancaster Sands, Low Tide - YCBA Collections Search

David Cox, 1783–1859, British, On Lancaster Sands, Low Tide, 1840s

Creator:: David Cox, 1783–1859
Title:: On Lancaster Sands, Low Tide
Date:: 1840s
Materials & Techniques:: Watercolor and graphite on medium, moderately textured, cream wove paper
Dimensions:: Sheet: 10 1/4 x 14 1/2 inches (26 x 36.8 cm)
Credit Line:: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:: Public Domain
Accession Number:: B1977.14.4672
Classification:: Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:: Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:: beach | birds | landscape | mountains | rocks (landforms) | running | sand | shore (landform) | tides | women
Associated Places:: Lancaster | United Kingdom
Access:: Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
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Link:: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:8318
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IIIF Manifest:: JSON

These two watercolors [no. 88 and no. 89] are particularly free and lively versions of standard Cox compositions of people on the sands of Morecambe Bay. They are not sketches; nor are they conventionally finished watercolors. Cox may have included such small, loosely painted watercolors among the numbers of more modestly scaled drawings that he sent to the exhibitions of the SPWC, but William Stone Ellis's ownership of On Lancaster Sands, Low Tide suggests a particular market for such works. Ellis took drawing lessons from Cox in the late 1820s, and the two men became close friends. Ellis was frequently Cox's traveling companion on his sketching tours, and after Cox's death he served as the artist's executor. Brilliant little watercolor drawings that showed Cox's effortless mastery of the medium would have had special appeal for his friends and pupils.

Scott Wilcox

Scott Wilcox, Sun, wind, and rain : the art of David Cox, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008, pg. 211, cat. no. 88, 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]

Oil on Water - Oil Sketches by British Watercolorists (Yale Center for British Art, 1986-08-26 - 1986-11-09) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

English Landscape (Paul Mellon Collection) 1630-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1977-04-19 - 1977-07-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

A loan exhibition of English drawings and watercolours from the collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon of Upperville, Virginia, P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1964, no. 43, pl. XIII, N5247.M385 L62 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Malcolm Cormack, Oil on water : oil sketches by British watercolorists, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1986, pp. 22-23, fig. 13, ND467 C67 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Painting in England 1700-1850 : collection of Mr. & Mrs. Paul Mellon : Exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, , , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, 1963, intro. p. 14, p. 103, no. 178, ND466 V57 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Scott Wilcox, Sun, wind, and rain : the art of David Cox, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2008, pp. 211-3, 216, no. 88, NJ18 .C829 W542 + Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Yale University Art Gallery, English drawings and watercolors from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, April 15-June 20,1965, , New Haven, 1965, no. 43, Pl. XIII, NC228 Y34 (YCBA) [YCBA]

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