Dover Pier, Kent

David Cox

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cox's mastery of watercolor is apparent in this small sheet. Brightening light at the the horizon indicates dawn, while a crowd gathered on a pier and distant sails characterize a busy port. Although tiny, the figures are distinguished by a various colors and shapes which contrast with long flat strokes used in the sky and water to suggest calm. Cox was a leader of the Birmingham school and one of the period’s significant watercolorists. He showed mainly at the Society of Painters in Watercolours in London. Initially influenced by Richard Parkes Bonington and John Varley, by the 1830s Cox was known for his distinctive, washy handling developed to depict English country subjects centered on wind and weather. A related subject, "Dover from the Sea," 1831 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) with similarly handled washes, suggests a possible date for the present work.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art