near Rowsley

DAVID COX
Birmingham 1783-1859 Birmingham

Near Rowsley, Derbyshire

Inscribed with title lower left
Black chalk, with another chalk sketch verso
195 x 267 mm., 7 ¾ x 10 ½ in.

Provenance:
William Ellis, 1845;
Private collection, Canterbury;
Michael Bryan, 1998;
With Martyn Gregory, 2005;
Private collection, UK until 2010

This drawing dates from Cox's trip to Derbyshire in May 1845 in the company of his friend and patron William Ellis. He frequently visited Haddon Hall from 1831 onwards and the area was a favourite sketching area. He normally stayed at the Peacock Inn at Rowsley. Cox's friend N.N. Solly recalls: `These views at Rowsley were generally sketched before breakfast. Cox made sometimes two drawings before breakfast, and began a third, and then spent the day afterwards sketching at Haddon Hall; this was in the month of May, 1845, when he was still in his full vigour' (N.Neal Solly, Memoir of the Life of David Cox, 1873, p.269).