COX

David ( only son of Joseph Cox of Birmingham, whitesmith, who d. about 1830 ). b. Heath mill lane, Deritend, Birmingham 29 April 1783; scene painter at Birmingham theatre 1800–4; came to London 1804; member of Soc. of painters in water colours 1813; drawing master in schools at Here ford 1814–26; exhibited 136 pictures at Pall Mall gallery 1844–54; made his first sketching visit to Bettws-y-coed then nearly unknown 1844, painted sign of the Royal Oak Inn there 1847 which he re-touched and varnished 1849; the greatest English water colour painter except Turner, his picture ‘The Hayfield’ fetched £2950 at the Quilter sale, April 1875, a price unparalleled for any water-colour; the best collections of his works were exhibited in Liverpool, Nov. 1875 numbering 448 pictures insured for about £100,000, and at Manchester Exhibition 1887; illustrated various works; author of The young artist’s companion 1825; A treatise on landscape painting 1841. d. Greenfield house, Harborne near Birmingham 7 June 1859. A biography of D. Cox by W. Hall (1881), portrait ; Memoirs of D. Cox by N. N. Solly (1875); Sherer’s Gallery of British artists, i , 124–6; Red grave’s Century of painters ii , 479–86 (1866); I.L.N. xxxv , 28, 42 (1859), portrait .