Rhyl Sands

Summary

A view along the length of the beach at Rhyl, which slopes down to the sea on the left and up to the town on the right of the composition. Dotted along the beach are figures, including ladies with parasols and others enjoying donkey rides.

Display Label

Rhyl Sands about 1854 David Cox 1783-1859 Oil on canvas Cox enjoyed a long career as a watercolourist before he took up oil painting in 1840. North Wales was a favourite haunt of the artist and Rhyl in particular is the subject of several pictures. The freshness of this work suggests it was done outside, anticipating French Impressionism of the later 1800s. But Cox's method is rooted in a direct response which is a recurring feature of Romantic British art. Oil sketches were not produced for sale or exhibition, but were preparatory studies for finished works, or else personal exercises in their own right. A larger, more finished version of Cox's Rhyl Sands is in the Art Gallery at Birmingham, the city of his birth. James Blair bequest 1917.170