Summary
This small oil sketch was painted by Cox in 1853, late in his career and at a time when he was enduring both personal and professional difficulties. He had suffered from serious illness in March 1853 and wrote to his son: 'I am now confined to my bedroom - a most violent attack of bronchitis, which nearly suffocates me at times. If I should be spared, I will get rid of some commissions, and make no more promises, but merely go out when I please and paint what I please' (quoted in Solly, p.227). In June 1853 Cox suffered a stroke, which impaired his vision and coordination irreparably.
The Tate painting shows a scene repeated often in Cox's later landscapes and belongs to what has been termed Cox's 'lost traveller' series, in which, over a number of years, he explored the motif of figures, sometimes with horses or dogs, seen from behind, journeying across breezy, low-lying terrain, often a moor, common or beach… (read more)
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