David Cox (artist) - Early Life

Early Life

Cox was born on 29 April 1783 in Deritend, Birmingham, the son of a blacksmith, who went on to become one of the most important figures in British Art during the so-called Golden Age of watercolour painting. He was considered by his contemporaries to be rivalled only by Constable in his portrayal of nature's moods and the British weather. In 1852 The Spectator claimed, "in his works there are power and insight enough to swamp all the others put together."

He studied drawing under Joseph Barber before being apprenticed to a maker of fancy articles named Fieldler in around 1798, where he soon learnt to paint portrait miniatures. Following Fieldlers suicide, he was next employed as an assistant to scene-painter De Maria in the Birmingham Theatre. In 1804, he took up work as a scene painter at Astleys Theatre and moved to London living in Vassall Road, Brixton. While living in London, Cox married his landlord's daughter, Mary Agg and the couple moved to Dulwich in 1808. In the same year, he abandoned scene-painting for the theatre, and took up watercolour painting for which he became famous.