Drawings of David Cox
A. J. Finberg
- 72 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Drawings of David Cox
A. J. Finberg
About This Book
Excerpt: "The greatest artists have expressed themselves so completely in their works, that the story of their lives adds little or nothing to our knowledge of their personality. We know very little about the life of Turnerâalmost as little, indeed, as we know of Shakespeare'sâbut in neither case do we seem to have missed anything that would add to our comprehension or enjoyment of their work. With Turner, as with Shakespeare, his art was the perfect organ of his spirit. His pictures enshrine more of the real personality of the artist than even a biographer of genius with unlimited opportunities could tell us. But though this is almost invariably true of the greatest artists, it is not true of all artists. It is hardly the case with David Cox. His hampered, thwarted art is indeed replete with glimpses and hints of the personality behind it; but without a commentary it is not very eloquent or very likely to arrest attention. The artist's life furnishes the needed commentary. The beautiful simplicity and naĂŻvetĂ© of the man's character, the mean circumstances in which his life was cast, the fortitude, industry, and manliness with which he triumphed over his difficultiesâthese things explain much that seems at first sight futile in his art and colour even his worst failures with a glow of purely human sympathy. And the works of his old ageâhis most eloquent and self-subsistent productions, i.e., the works of Cox that stand least in need of a commentaryâthese lose nothing of their compelling power from the spectator's consciousness of the difficulties through which the artist's spirit had to struggle towards self-realisation and expression."