Object Image

Riders with Sheep near an Estuary

Cox painted this watercolor, which may represent Traeth Mawr, near Harlech in North Wales, at mid-career, having already published an influential treatise on watercolor, made European tours, and moved to London. In the years that followed, he would translate his picturesque views into oil paintings and cultivate an increasingly sketchy style in his drawings. But at the time he prepared this watercolor, Cox favored sweeping, cleanly described views with strong hues used sparingly. Touches of brilliant blue animate the sky, while minute passages of emerald and vermilion punctuate the jacket of a standing youth and a rider’s cloak.

Credit: Purchase, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Wh...

1830
Watercolor
15.5 x 23.3cm
2001.414
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

Where you'll find this

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection