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Item Ships From: Ohio
Circus Lot at Toledo, Ohio, Early 20th Century Cleveland School Artist
By Frank Wilcox
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964)
Circus Lot at Toledo, c. 1920
Watercolor on Whatman board
Signed lower right
22 x 30 inches
Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School painters," though some sources give this appellation to Henry Keller or Frederick Gottwald. Wilcox was born on October 3, 1887 to Frank Nelson Wilcox, Sr. and Jessie Fremont Snow Wilcox at 61 Linwood Street in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, a prominent lawyer, died at home in 1904 shortly before Wilcox' 17th birthday. His brother, lawyer and publisher Owen N. Wilcox, was president of the Gates Legal Publishing Company or The Gates Press. His sister Ruth Wilcox was a respected librarian.
In 1906 Wilcox enrolled from the Cleveland School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Keller, Louis Rorimer, and Frederick Gottwald. He also attended Keller's Berlin Heights summer school from 1909. After graduating in 1910, Wilcox traveled and studied in Europe, sometimes dropping by Académie Colarossi in the evening to sketch the model or the other students at their easels, where he was influenced by French impressionism. Wilcox was influenced by Keller's innovative watercolor techniques, and from 1910 to 1916 they experimented together with impressionism and post-impressionism. Wilcox soon developed his own signature style in the American Scene or Regionalist tradition of the early 20th century. He joined the Cleveland School of Art faculty in 1913. Among his students were Lawrence Edwin Blazey, Carl Gaertner, Paul Travis, and Charles E. Burchfield. Around this time Wilcox became associated with Cowan Pottery.
In 1916 Wilcox married fellow artist Florence Bard, and they spent most of their honeymoon painting in Berlin Heights with Keller. They had one daughter, Mary. In 1918 he joined the Cleveland Society of Artists, a conservative counter to the Bohemian Kokoon Arts Club, and would later serve as its president. He also began teaching night school at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute at this time, and taught briefly at Baldwin-Wallace College.
Wilcox wrote and illustrated Ohio Indian Trails in 1933, which was favorably reviewed by the New York Times in 1934. This book was edited and reprinted in 1970 by William A. McGill. McGill also edited and reprinted Wilcox' Canals of the Old Northwest in 1969. Wilcox also wrote, illustrated, and published Weather Wisdom in 1949, a limited edition (50 copies) of twenty-four serigraphs (silk screen prints) accompanied by commentary "based upon familiar weather observations commonly made by people living in the country."
Wilcox displayed over 250 works at Cleveland's annual May Show. He received numerous awards, including the Penton Medal for as The Omnibus, Paris (1920), Fish Tug on Lake Erie (1921), Blacksmith Shop (1922), and The Gravel Pit (1922). Other paintings include The Trailing Fog (1929), Under the Big Top (1930), and Ohio Landscape...
Category
1920s American Modern Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Crashing Waves on Atlantic Coast, Mid-century Seascape, Cleveland School Artist
By Frank Wilcox
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964)
Crashing Waves on the Atlantic Coast, 1957
Watercolor and graphite on paper
Signed and dated lower right
22 x 29 inches
Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School painters," though some sources give this appellation to Henry Keller or Frederick Gottwald. Wilcox was born on October 3, 1887 to Frank Nelson Wilcox, Sr. and Jessie Fremont Snow Wilcox at 61 Linwood Street in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, a prominent lawyer, died at home in 1904 shortly before Wilcox' 17th birthday. His brother, lawyer and publisher Owen N. Wilcox, was president of the Gates Legal Publishing Company or The Gates Press. His sister Ruth Wilcox was a respected librarian.
In 1906 Wilcox enrolled from the Cleveland School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Keller, Louis Rorimer, and Frederick Gottwald. He also attended Keller's Berlin Heights summer school from 1909. After graduating in 1910, Wilcox traveled and studied in Europe, sometimes dropping by Académie Colarossi in the evening to sketch the model or the other students at their easels, where he was influenced by French impressionism. Wilcox was influenced by Keller's innovative watercolor techniques, and from 1910 to 1916 they experimented together with impressionism and post-impressionism. Wilcox soon developed his own signature style in the American Scene or Regionalist tradition of the early 20th century. He joined the Cleveland School of Art faculty in 1913. Among his students were Lawrence Edwin Blazey, Carl Gaertner, Paul Travis, and Charles E. Burchfield. Around this time Wilcox became associated with Cowan Pottery.
In 1916 Wilcox married fellow artist Florence Bard, and they spent most of their honeymoon painting in Berlin Heights with Keller. They had one daughter, Mary. In 1918 he joined the Cleveland Society of Artists, a conservative counter to the Bohemian Kokoon Arts Club, and would later serve as its president. He also began teaching night school at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute at this time, and taught briefly at Baldwin-Wallace College.
Wilcox wrote and illustrated Ohio Indian Trails in 1933, which was favorably reviewed by the New York Times in 1934. This book was edited and reprinted in 1970 by William A. McGill. McGill also edited and reprinted Wilcox' Canals of the Old Northwest in 1969. Wilcox also wrote, illustrated, and published Weather Wisdom in 1949, a limited edition (50 copies) of twenty-four serigraphs (silk screen prints) accompanied by commentary "based upon familiar weather observations commonly made by people living in the country."
Wilcox displayed over 250 works at Cleveland's annual May Show. He received numerous awards, including the Penton Medal for as The Omnibus, Paris (1920), Fish Tug on Lake Erie (1921), Blacksmith Shop (1922), and The Gravel Pit (1922). Other paintings include The Trailing Fog (1929), Under the Big Top (1930), and Ohio Landscape...
Category
1950s American Modern Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite, Watercolor
untitled (Pueblo)
By Virginia Dehn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Taos Pueblo)
Ink on paper, 1985-1990
Signed by the artist in ink lower right (see photo)
An early New Mexico period work, created shortly after the artist moved from New York.
Provenance: estate of the artist
Dehn Heirs
Condition: Excellent
Image/sheet size: 13 1/8 x 18 1/2 inches
Virginia Dehn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Virginia Dehn
Virginia Dehn in her studio in Santa Fe
Virginia Dehn (née Engleman) (October 26, 1922 – July 28, 2005) was an American painter and printmaker. Her work was known for its interpretation of natural themes in almost abstract forms. She exhibited in shows and galleries throughout the U.S. Her paintings are included in many public collections.
Life
Dehn was born in Nevada, Missouri on October 26, 1922.] Raised in Hamden, Connecticut, she studied at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri before moving to New York City. She met the artist Adolf Dehn while working at the Art Students League. They married in November 1947. The two artists worked side by side for many years, part of a group of artists who influenced the history of 20th century American art. Their Chelsea brownstone was a place where artists, writers, and intellectuals often gathered.
Early career
Virginia Dehn studied art at Stephens College in Missouri before continuing her art education at the Traphagen School of Design, and, later, the Art Students League, both located in New York City. In the mid-1940s while working at the Associated American Artists gallery, she met lithographer and watercolorist Adolf Dehn. Adolf was older than Virginia, and he already enjoyed a successful career as an artist. The two were married in 1947 in a private ceremony at Virginia's parents house in Wallingford, Connecticut.
Virginia and Adolf Dehn
The Dehns lived in a Chelsea brownstone on West 21st Street where they worked side by side. They often hosted gatherings of other influential artists and intellectuals of the 20th century. Among their closest friends were sculptor Federico Castellón and his wife Hilda; writer Sidney Alexander and his wife Frances; artists Sally and Milton Avery; Ferol and Bill Smith, also an artist; and Lily and Georges Schreiber, an artist and writer. Bob Steed and his wife Gittel, an anthropologist, were also good friends of the Dehns. According to friend Gretchen Marple Pracht, "Virginia was a glamorous and sophisticated hostess who welcomed visitors to their home and always invited a diverse crowd of guests..." Despite their active social life, the two were disciplined artists, working at their easels nearly daily and taking Saturdays to visit galleries and view new work.
The Dehns made annual trips to France to work on lithographs at the Atelier Desjobert in Paris. Virginia used a bamboo pen to draw directly on the stone for her lithographs, which often depicted trees or still lifes. The Dehns' other travels included visits to Key West, Colorado, Mexico, and countries such as Greece, Haiti, Afghanistan, and India.
Dehn's style of art differend greatly from that of her husband, though the two sometimes exhibited together. A friend of the couple remarked, "Adolf paints landscapes; Virginia paints inscapes." Virginia Dehn generally painted an interior vision based on her feelings for a subject, rather than a literal rendition of it.] Many of her paintings consist of several layers, with earlier layers showing through. She found inspiration in the Abstract Expressionism movement that dominated the New York and Paris art scenes in the 1950s. Some of her favorite artists included Adolf Gottileb, Rothko, William Baziotes, Pomodoro, and Antonio Tapies.
Dehn most often worked with bold, vibrant colors in large formats. Her subjects were not literal, but intuitive. She learned new techniques of lithography from her husband Adolf, and did her own prints. Texture was very important to her in her work. Her art was influenced by a variety of sources. In the late 1960s she came across a book that included photographs of organic patterns of life as revealed under a microscope. These images inspired her to change the direction of some of her paintings. Other influences on Dehn's art came from ancient and traditional arts of various cultures throughout the world, including Persian miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, Dutch still life painting, Asian art, ancient Egyptian artifacts...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Snowy Peaks (Mont Blanc)
By Robert Hallowell
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Snowy Peaks (Mont Blanc)
Watercolor on paper, c. 1930
Signed "R. Hallowell" lower right (see photo)
The image depicts is of Mont Blanc in France.
Mont Blanc is the highest mountain i...
Category
1930s American Impressionist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Standing Lincoln: The Man, Lincoln Park, Illinois
By Louis Oscar Griffith
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Standing Lincoln: The Man, Lincoln Park, Illinois
Watercolor and graphite on paper , c. 1895
Signed in script lower right (see photo)
The scene depicts the Augustus Saint-Gaudens bro...
Category
1890s American Impressionist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Building New York
By Leon Kroll
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Building New York
Watercolor on paper, c. 1915
Signed by the artist lower right (see photo)
Partial watermark: "MADE IN ENGLAND... LINEN FIBER"
Excellent, COLORS FRESH AND VIBRANT
Br...
Category
1910s American Realist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
York Road Near Rt. 82
By August F. Biehle
Located in Fairlawn, OH
York Road Near Rt. 82
Signed in pencil upper left; signed again green pencil lower right.
raphite and colored crayon on paper, mounted to paper
c. 1950's
Titled by the artist in bla...
Category
Early 20th Century Fauvist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Crayon, Graphite
untitled (Street Scene Mexico)
By William Grauer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Mexican Landscape (Man Walking on Street)
Ink and watercolor on paper.
Signed with the estate stamp lower right (see photo)
From the Estate of the Artist with the artist's estate stamp lower right.
C. 1960's
Condition: excellent
Image/Sheet size: 9 7/8 x 7 5/8 inches
William C. Grauer (1895-1985)
William C. Grauer (1895-1985) was born in Philadelphia to German immigrant parents. After attending the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, Grauer received a four year scholarship from the City of Philadelphia to pursue post graduate work. It was during this time that Grauer began working as a designer at the Decorative Stained Glass Co. in Philadelphia.
Following his World War I service in France, Grauer moved to Akron, Ohio where he opened a studio in 1919 with his future brother-in-law, the architect George Evans Mitchell. Soon, the Rorimer-Brooks design company, the developer Van Swerngen brothers, as well as the Sterling Welch and Halle Bros. department stores realized the extent of Grauer's talent and eagerly employed him. Grauer’s work during this time included architectural renderings for Shaker Square, Moreland Courts, and other many other projects commissioned by Cleveland architects. Grauer also remained true to his roots as a master designer of stained glass windows. With his work in such high demand, Grauer received a commission in 1921 to paint murals for the French Grill...
Category
1960s American Modern Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
$500 Sale Price
28% Off
Veillee Sepulchrale; Verso: Study of two figures in a landscape
By Eugene Berman
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Veillee Sepulchrale
Verso: Study of two figures in a landscape
Pen and ink on rose colored Canson watermark paper, 1944
Signed in ink with the artist's initials lower center (see photo)
Dated 1944 lower center;
Titled in ink upper left corner (see photo)
Provenance:
Swann Galleries, 2010, realized $900.
John Popplestone (1928-2013), Akron, OH collector, noted psychologist and author
Berman brothers (painters)
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This article is about the painters. For the American songwriters/producers, see Berman Brothers (producers).
Eugene Berman in Italy in the 1960s
Eugène Berman (Russian: Евгений Густавович Берман; 4 November 1899, Saint Petersburg, Russia – 14 December 1972, Rome) and his brother Leonid Berman...
Category
1940s Surrealist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Pen
West Gouldsboro (Looking Across Mt. Desert Narrows)
By Greta Allen
Located in Fairlawn, OH
West Gouldsboro (Looking Across Mt. Desert Narrows)
Watercolor on paper, c. 1945-1955
Unsigned
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
Condition: Excellent
Image/Sheet size: 9 7/8 x 12 1/2 inches
Regarding the Maine subject matter of her watercolors, we know that Allen taught art in West Gouldsboro, ME, located near Arcadia National Forest. This watercolor was most probably done in that vicinity.
A local Maine newsletter mentions “the artist Greta Allen’s house” as artist residing in West Gouldsboro, Maine in a house formerly owned by James Hill. West Gouldsboro is located just east of the Mt. Desert Narrows, across Frenchman Bay from Mt. Desert Island and Arcadia National Park.
Please see attached images for detailed information about the artist's life and time in Maine.
Greta Allen, who is sometimes listed under her married name Dietz, was born in Boston in 1881. At the Massachusetts Normal Art School she took elementary lessons from Joseph R. DeCamp, then Frank Benson was her teacher at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Although her work seems to be only in private collections today, Allen exhibited at the Boston Art Club, at the Copley Society...
Category
1940s American Impressionist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
The Duomo, Florence
By Donald Shaw MacLaughlan
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Duomo, Florence
Watercolor, 1914
Signed and dated lower center edge (see photo)
Florence Cathedral, formally the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, is the cathedral of Florence, Italy. It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi.
Condition: Excellent
Image size: 16 3/4 x 14 1/2 inches
Frame size: 24 1/4 x 22 inches
Donald Shaw MacLaughlan was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada on November 9, 1876. His family moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1890 where he began to experiment with different art media; watercolor, oil painting and finally, etching – with a few attempts at lithography. He spent much of his early years at the Boston Public Library studying the work of printmakers, from Durer and Rembrandt to the 18th century English, French and Italian masters.
Like many American artists of the time MacLaughlan traveled to Europe to study in Paris, enrolling in the Ecole des Beaux Arts and studied further with Jean Leon Gerome and Jean Paul Laurens. In 1899 he began producing etchings, which became his major interest until his death in 1938. He became acquainted with James NcNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and other artists who created etchings and spent time studying the etchings of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and other old masters in the collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale. Both Rembrandt and Whistler would have major influences on his art. In 1900 he created a set of 25 etched views of Paris and in 1901 exhibited two etchings in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He returned to the U.S. in 1903, then went back to Paris the following year.
He traveled extensively in Europe, visiting England, Switzerland, Italy and Spain as well as various locales in France. His etched views of Venice were well-known. MacLaughlan exhibited views of Paris, Rouen, Normandy and Italy in 1906 in a solo show at the American Art Association Galleries in Paris. He also displayed his work in the 1906 exhibitions of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Français. MacLaughlan even instructed other expatriate Canadian artists then living in Paris, most notably Clarence...
Category
1910s American Modern Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
untitled (Lost Ship in a Misty Sea)
By Henry George Keller
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed and monogrammed by the artist lower left
Category
Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Landscape with Figures in the English Countryside
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Landscape with Figures in the English Countryside
Pen, ink and graphite with gray and brown washes on laid watermarked paper, c. 1740
Signed by the artist lower left of image: "Chate...
Category
1740s Romantic Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
untitled (Mt. Desert Narrows)
By Greta Allen
Located in Fairlawn, OH
untitled (Mt. Desert Narrows)
Watercolor on paper, c. 1945-1955
Unsigned
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
Condition: Excellent
Image/sheet size: 11 1/4 x 15 3/8 inches
Regarding the ...
Category
1940s American Impressionist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Construction on the Pass, Montana, Western Landscape, Cleveland School Artist
By Frank Wilcox
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964)
Construction on the Pass, Montana, c. 1950
Watercolor on Whatman board
22 x 30 inches
Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School painters," though some sources give this appellation to Henry Keller or Frederick Gottwald. Wilcox was born on October 3, 1887 to Frank Nelson Wilcox, Sr. and Jessie Fremont Snow Wilcox at 61 Linwood Street in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, a prominent lawyer, died at home in 1904 shortly before Wilcox' 17th birthday. His brother, lawyer and publisher Owen N. Wilcox, was president of the Gates Legal Publishing Company or The Gates Press. His sister Ruth Wilcox was a respected librarian.
In 1906 Wilcox enrolled from the Cleveland School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Keller, Louis Rorimer...
Category
1950s American Modern Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Untitled
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled
Watercolor on paper, c,. 1890
Unsigned
Provenance: Estate of the artist
Image/Sheet size: 3 1/4 x 4 1/8 inches
From Wikipedia
"Francis Augustus Lathrop (June 22, 1849 – Oct...
Category
1890s American Impressionist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Study of an Italian Town with Women in a Doorway
By Jared French
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Study of an Italian Town with Women in a Doorway
Graphite on cream wove paper, c. 1960
Signed by the artist in pencil lower right (see photo)
A master of "Magic Realism," French was ...
Category
1960s American Realist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite
The "Hair Pin" Road, and Studies of a Well Head and Candleholder, Capri
By Margaret Jordan Patterson
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Annotated with title under the landscape
Provenance:
James Bakker, Boston
James Bergquist, Boston
Two images on one sheet: horizontal "Hair Pin" Road; vertical: studies
Category
1920s Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite
Unknown title (castle with wall, stream and footbridge)
By David Cox
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Unknown title (castle with wall, stream and footbridge)
Watercolor on laid paper, mounted to support of old Albumin photograph mount
Signed and dated lower left (see photo)
The watercolor is mounted on support that is the backing for a vintage albumin photograph of Moulin Huet, Guernsey, Channel Islands, c. 1850's
Condition: Mounted to verso of albumin photograph mount (see photo)
Glue residue outside of image/sheet on recto
Colors fresh
No other issues to note
David Cox (29 April 1783 – 7 June 1859) was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism.
He is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters, and a major figure of the Golden age of English watercolour.
Although most popularly known for his works in watercolour, he also painted over 300 works in oil towards the end of his career, now considered "one of the greatest, but least recognised, achievements of any British painter.
His son, known as David Cox the Younger (1809-1885), was also a successful artist.
Early life in Birmingham, 1783–1804
Cox's birthplace in Deritend, Birmingham, illustrated by Samuel Lines
Cox was born on 29 April 1783 on Heath Mill Lane in Deritend, then an industrial suburb of Birmingham. His father was a blacksmith and whitesmith about whom little is known, except that he supplied components such as bayonets and barrels to the Birmingham gun trade. Cox's mother was the daughter of a farmer and miller from Small Heath to the east of Birmingham. Early biographers record that "she had had a better education than his father, and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character." Cox was initially expected to follow his father into the metal trade and take over his forge, but his lack of physical strength led his family to seek opportunities for him to develop his interest in art, which is said to have first become apparent when the young Cox started painting paper kites...
Category
1840s Romantic Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
The River Barge
By David Cox
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The River Barge
Pen and ink on paper on laid paper, mounted in English drum mount , c. 1810
Unsigned
Condition: Slight sun staining to sheet and mount in the window (see photo)
Image/sheet size: 5 1/4 x 6 11/16 inches
Sight: : 5-3/4 x 7-1/4"
Frame: 13-3/8 x 14-3/8"
Provenance: Colnaghi, London (see photo of label)
David Cox (29 April 1783 – 7 June 1859) was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism.
He is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters, and a major figure of the Golden age of English watercolour.
Although most popularly known for his works in watercolour, he also painted over 300 works in oil towards the end of his career, now considered "one of the greatest, but least recognised, achievements of any British painter.
His son, known as David Cox the Younger (1809-1885), was also a successful artist.
Early life in Birmingham, 1783–1804
Cox's birthplace in Deritend, Birmingham, illustrated by Samuel Lines
Cox was born on 29 April 1783 on Heath Mill Lane in Deritend, then an industrial suburb of Birmingham. His father was a blacksmith and whitesmith about whom little is known, except that he supplied components such as bayonets and barrels to the Birmingham gun trade. Cox's mother was the daughter of a farmer and miller from Small Heath to the east of Birmingham. Early biographers record that "she had had a better education than his father, and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character." Cox was initially expected to follow his father into the metal trade and take over his forge, but his lack of physical strength led his family to seek opportunities for him to develop his interest in art, which is said to have first become apparent when the young Cox started painting paper kites while recovering from a broken leg.
By the late 18th century Birmingham had developed a network of private academies teaching drawing and painting, established to support the needs of the town's manufacturers of luxury metal goods, but also encouraging education in fine art, and nurturing the distinctive tradition of landscape art of the Birmingham School. Cox initially enrolled in the academy of Joseph Barber in Great Charles Street, where fellow students included the artist Charles Barber and the engraver William Radclyffe, both of whom would become important lifelong friends.
At the age of about 15 Cox was apprenticed to the Birmingham painter Albert Fielder, who produced portrait miniatures and paintings for the tops of snuffboxes from his workshop at 10 Parade in the northwest of the town. Early biographers of Cox record that he left his apprenticeship after Fielder's suicide, with one reporting that Cox himself discovered his master's hanging body, but this is probably a myth as Fielder is recorded at his address in Parade as late as 1825. At some time during mid-1800 Cox was given work by William Macready the elder at the Birmingham Theatre, initially as an assistant grinding colours and preparing canvases for the scene painters, but from 1801 painting scenery himself and by 1802 leading his own team of assistants and being credited in plays' publicity.
London, 1804–1814
In 1804 Cox was promised work by the theatre impresario Philip Astley and moved to London, taking lodgings in 16 Bridge Row, Lambeth. Although he was unable to get employment at Astley's Amphitheatre it is likely that he had already decided to try to establish himself as a professional artist, and apart from a few private commissions for painting scenery his focus over the next few years was to be on painting and exhibiting watercolours. While living in London, Cox married his landlord's daughter, Mary Agg and the couple moved to Dulwich in 1808.
David Cox Travellers on a Path, pencil and brown wash.
In 1805 he made his first of many trips to Wales, with Charles Barber, his earliest dated watercolours are from this year. Throughout his lifetime he made numerous sketching tours to the Home Counties, North Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Devon.
Cox exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1805. His paintings never reached high prices, so he earned his living mainly as a drawing master. His first pupil, Colonel the Hon.H. Windsor (the future Earl of Plymouth) engaged him in 1808, Cox went on to acquire several other aristocratic and titled pupils. He also went on to write several books, including: Ackermanns' New Drawing Book (1809); A Series of Progressive Lessons (1811); Treatise on Landscape Painting (1813); and Progressive Lessons on Landscape (1816). The ninth and last edition of his series Progressive Lessons, was published in 1845.
By 1810 he was elected President of the Associated Artists in Water Colour. In 1812, following the demise of the Associated Artists, he was elected as associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colour (the old Water Colour Society). He was elected a Member of the Society in 1813, and exhibited there every year (except 1815 and 1817) until his death.
Hereford, 1814–1827
In the summer of 1813 Cox was appointed as the drawing master of the Royal Military College in Farnham, Surrey, but he resigned shortly afterwards, finding little sympathy with the atmosphere of a military institution. Soon after that he applied to a newspaper advertisement for a position as drawing master for Miss Crouchers' School for Young Ladies in Hereford and in Autumn 1814 moved to the town with his family. Cox taught at the school in Widemarsh Street until 1819, his substantial salary of £100 per year requiring only two-day's work per week, allowing time for painting and the taking of private pupils.
Cox's reputation as both a painter and a teacher had been building over previous years, as indicated by his election as a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours and his inclusion in John Hassell's 1813 book Aqua Pictura, which claimed to present works by "all of the most approved water coloured draftsmen". The depression that accompanied the end of the Napoleonic Wars had caused a contraction in the art market, however, and by 1814 Cox had been very short of money, requiring a loan from one of his pupils to pay even for the move to Hereford. Despite its financial advantages and its proximity to the scenery of North Wales and the Wye Valley, the move to Hereford marked a retreat in terms of his career as a painter: he sent few works to the annual exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours during his first years away from London and not until 1823 would he again contribute more than 20 pictures.
Between 1823 and 1826 he had Joseph Murray Ince as a pupil.
London, 1827–1841
He made his first trip to the Continent, to Belgium and the Netherlands in 1826 and subsequently moved to London the following year.
He exhibited for the first time with the Birmingham Society of Artists in 1829, and with the Liverpool Academy in 1831. In 1839, two of Cox's watercolours were bought from the Old Water Colour Society exhibition by the Marquis of Conynha for Queen Victoria.
Birmingham, 1841–1859
Greenfield House in Harborne, Birmingham – where Cox lived from 1841 until his death in 1859 .
In May 1840 Cox wrote to one of his Birmingham friends: "I am making preparations to sketch in oil, and also to paint, and it is my intention to spend most of my time in Birmingham for the purpose of practice". Cox had been considering a return to painting in oils since 1836 and in 1839 had taken lessons in oil painting from William James Müller, to whom he had been introduced by mutual friend George Arthur Fripp. Hostility between the Society of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Academy made it difficult for an artist to be recognised for work in both watercolour and oil in London, however, and it is likely that Cox would have preferred to explore this new medium in the more supportive environment of his home town. By the early 1840s his income from sales of his watercolours was sufficient to allow him to abandon his work as a drawing master, and in June 1841 he moved with his wife to Greenfield House in Harborne, then a village on Birmingham's south western outskirts. It was this move that would enable the higher levels of freedom and experimentation that were to characterise his later work.
The elderly Cox pictured by Samuel Bellin in 1855.
In Harborne, Cox established a steady routine – working in watercolour in the morning and oils in the afternoon. He would visit London every spring to attend the major exhibitions, followed by one or more sketching excursions, continuing the pattern that he had established in the 1830s. From 1844 these tours evolved into a yearly trip to Betws-y-Coed in North Wales to work outdoors in both oil and watercolour, gradually becoming the focus for an annual summer artists colony that continued until 1856 with Cox as its "presiding genius".
Cox's experience of trying to exhibit his oils in London was short and unsuccessful: in 1842 he made his only submission to the Society of British Artists; one oil painting was exhibited at each of the British Institution and the Royal Academy in 1843; and two oil paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 – the last that would be exhibited in London during his lifetime.
Cox showed regularly at the Birmingham Society of Arts and its successor, the Birmingham Society of Artists, becoming a member in 1842.
Cox suffered a stroke on 12 June 1853 that temporarily paralysed him, and permanently affected his eyesight, memory and coordination.
By 1857 however, his eyesight had deteriorated. An exhibition of his work was arranged in 1858 by the Conversazione Society Hampstead, and in 1859 a retrospective exhibition was held at the German Gallery Bond Street, London. Cox died several months later. He was buried in the churchyard of St Peters, Harborne, Birmingham, under a chestnut tree, alongside his wife Mary.
Work
Early work
In the spring of 1811 Cox made a small number of notable works in oils during a visit to Hastings with his family. It is not known why he didn't continue working in this medium at the time, but the five known surviving examples were described in 1969 as "surely some of the most brilliant examples of the genre in England".
Mature work
Cox reached artistic maturity after his move to Hereford in 1814. Although only two major watercolours can confidently be traced to the period between Cox's arrival in the town and the end of the decade, both of these – Butcher's Row, Hereford of 1815 and Lugg Meadows, near Hereford of 1817 – mark advances on his earlier work.
Later work
Cox's later work produced after his move to Birmingham in 1841 was marked by simplification, abstraction and a stripping down of detail. His art of the period combined the breadth and weight characteristic of the earlier English watercolour school, together with a boldness and freedom of expression comparable to later impressionism. His concern with capturing the fleeting nature of weather, atmosphere and light was similar to that of John Constable, but Cox stood apart from the older painter's focus on capturing material detail, instead employing a high degree of generalisation and a focus on overall effect.
The quest for character over precision in representing nature was an established characteristic of the Birmingham School of landscape artists with which Cox had been associated early in his life, and as early as 1810 Cox's work had been criticised for its "sketchiness of finish" and "cloudy confusion of objects", which were held to betray "the coarseness of scene-painting". During the 1840s and 1850s Cox took this "peculiar manner" to new extremes, incorporating the techniques of the sketch into his finished works to a far greater degree.
Cox's watercolour technique of the 1840s was sufficiently different from his earlier methods to need explanation to his son in 1842, despite the fact that his son had been helping him teach and paint since 1827. The materials used for his later works in watercolour also differed from his earlier periods: he used black chalk instead of graphite pencil as his primary drawing medium, and the rough and absorbent "Scotch" wrapping paper for which he became well-known – both of these were related to his development of a rougher and freer style.
Influence and legacy
By the 1840s Cox, alongside Peter De Wint and Copley Fielding, had become recognised as one of the leading figures of the English landscape watercolour style of the first half of the 19th century. This judgement was complicated by reaction to the rougher and bolder style of Cox's later Birmingham work, which was widely ignored or condemned. While by this time De Wint and Fielding were essentially continuing in a long-established tradition, Cox was creating a new one.
A group of young artists working in Cox's watercolour style emerged well before his death, including William Bennett, David Hall McKewan and Cox's son David Cox Jr. By 1850 Bennett in particular had become recognised as "perhaps the most distinguished among the landscape painters" for his Cox-like vigorous and decisive style. Such early followers concentrated on the example of Cox's more moderate earlier work and steered clear of what were then seen as the excesses of Cox's later years. During a period dominated by sleek and detailed picturesque landscape, however, they were still condemned by publications such as The Spectator as "the 'blottesque' school", and failed to establish themselves as a cohesive movement.
John Ruskin in 1857 condemned the work of the Society of Painters in Water-colours as "a kind of potted art, of an agreeable flavour, suppliable and taxable as a patented commodity", excluding only the late work of Cox, about which he wrote "there is not any other landscape which comes near these works of David Cox in simplicity or seriousness".
An 1881 book, A Biography of David Cox: With Remarks on His Works and Genius, was based on a manuscript by Cox's friend William Hall, edited and expanded by John Thackray Bunce, editor of the Birmingham Daily Post.
There are two Blue Plaque memorials commemorating him at 116 Greenfield Road, Harborne, Birmingham, and at 34 Foxley Road, Kennington, London, SW9, where he lived from 1827. It can also be seen at the David Cox exhibition in Birmingham.
His pupils included Birmingham architectural artist, Allen Edward...
Category
1810s Romantic Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Staten Island
By Robert Hallowell
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Staten Island
Watercolor on paper, c. 1928
Signed with the Estate stamp lower left
Sheet size: 19 1/8 x 23 7/8 inches
Titled on verso
Part of small series of watercolors done of the ...
Category
1920s American Modern Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Outgoing Fog (South Bristol, Maine)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Watercolor on paper, 1976
Painted in South Bristol, Maine
Signed by the artist lower left
Condition: Excellent
Category
1970s Realist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Chicago Skyline
By Adolf Arthur Dehn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Unsigned
Provenance:
Estate of the artist
c. 1929/30
Sheet: 9 7/8 x 14 1/8"
Mat: 15 1/4 x 19 3/4"
Category
1920s Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Crayon
Untitled (Hot Air Baloon Ascent and Spectators)
By Joseph O'Sickey
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Hot Air Balloon Ascent and Spectators)
Sepia wash on wove paper, 1985
Signed and dated in ink lower right corner
From the artist's 1985 sketchbook
Probably a view of Cape C...
Category
1980s American Modern Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
untitled (Hillside in Spring)
By William C. Grauer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
untitled (Hillside in Spring)
Gouache on paper, c. 1965
Signed with the estate stamp lower right
Provenance: Estate of the artist
by decent
William C. Grauer (1895-1985) was born in Philadelphia to German immigrant parents. After attending the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, Grauer received a four year scholarship from the City of Philadelphia to pursue post graduate work. It was during this time that Grauer began working as a designer at the Decorative Stained Glass Co. in Philadelphia.
Following his World War I service in France, Grauer moved to Akron, Ohio where he opened a studio in 1919 with his future brother-in-law, the architect George Evans...
Category
1960s Realist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache
untitled (Maine Autumn Landscape across the narrows from Mt. Desert)
By Greta Allen
Located in Fairlawn, OH
untitled (Maine Autumn Landscape across the narrows from Mt. Desert)
Watercolor, 1945-1955
Signed by the artist lower left in pencil (see photo)
Provenance: Estate of the artist
Cond...
Category
1940s American Impressionist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Irish Sea
By Edward Dobrotka
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Irish Sea
Watercolor, 1947
Signed and dated by the artist lower right
Condition: Excellent
Image/Sheet size: 12 x 18 inches
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
...
Category
1940s American Realist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Breaking Up of the Penelope
By Edward Dobrotka
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Breaking Up of the Penelope
watercolor on artists watercolor board, 1942
Signed and dated by the artist lower right (see photo)
Exhibitions:
Cleveland, OH, The Cleveland Museum of Art, May 3 - June 11, 1944: "The 26th Annual Ehibition of Works by Artists and Craftsmen of the Western Reserve," , (label on verso)
Youngstown OH, The Butler Insititue of American Art, 1943: "1943 New Year Show," , (label on verso)
"Ed Dobrotka was one of comic-book illustrator Joe Shuster's early assistants. In the studio, he worked on the 'Superman' series, inking the pencils of artists including Shuster, John Sikela, Leo Nowak and Wayne Boring.
Dobrotka did do some pencilling of his own, however he returned to inking exclusively in 1945. In the following years, he worked with Sikela on the 'Superboy' series until the 1950s. He has also work on the solo 'Lois Lane...
Category
1940s American Realist Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Mountain Landscape
By Hijikata Torei
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ink and gold on paper silk mounted to hanging scroll
Brush wash scroll
Signed Torei sha, sealed Hirokuni and Torei
Painting size: 42 x 16"
Scrol...
Category
Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Sumi Ink
Arroyo Seco Stables, Pasadena
Located in Columbus, OH
Original watercolor painting by celebrated, twentieth-century California landscape painter, Ronald Shap. Vibrant scene of the Arroyo Seco Stables in Pasadena, CA with the York Boulev...
Category
20th Century Contemporary Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Neptune's Fountain, Pasadena City Hall
Located in Columbus, OH
Original watercolor painting by celebrated, twentieth-century California landscape painter, Ronald Shap. Sketch of the fountain in front of the Pasadena City Hall in Southern Califor...
Category
20th Century Contemporary Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Santa Monica Bay
Located in Columbus, OH
Original watercolor painting by celebrated, twentieth-century California landscape painter, Ronald Shap. Vibrant view of the Pacific Ocean and Santa Monica Bay from the hills above H...
Category
20th Century Contemporary Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
The Cathedral
Located in Columbus, OH
"The Cathedral" is an original gouache painting by celebrated, twentieth-century California impressionist landscape painter, Ronald Shap. Dreamy painting of an old church we believe ...
Category
1990s Contemporary Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Gouache
Moraine Valley & Snow Peaks, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Landscape
By Frank Wilcox
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887–1964)
Moraine and Snow Peaks, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, c. 1950
Watercolor on paper
19 x 24 inches
21 x 26 inches framed
"My bigge...
Category
1950s Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
The Relic
Located in Columbus, OH
"The Relic" is an original gouache and ink painting by celebrated, twentieth-century California impressionist landscape painter, Ronald Shap. Old machinery in washes of red/maroon, b...
Category
1980s Contemporary Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Gouache, Ink
Campbell Beach, Mentor
By Emma Lane Payne
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed and dated by the artist in ink lower left.
Annotated in pencil lower left: "Campbell Beach, Mentor"
Provenance:
By descent from the estate of the artist.
Category
Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
In the Neighborhood (East)
Located in Columbus, OH
Gouache painting of a historic neighborhood at dusk by celebrated, twentieth-century California impressionist landscape painter, Ronald Shap. The companion piece to In the Neighborho...
Category
1990s Contemporary Ohio - Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink, Gouache