his composition, a mass, a shape, a tone, a spot of colour—but
a mass, tone, or what-have-you that was of itself appropriate
to the theme. Apart from the latter point, it might have been a
bathing machine or anything else; but a bathing machine it
was, and if its shape interfered with one's picture, one 'put it
in its place' and 'made what one wanted of it' „ It was necessary,
but it need not obtrude; and so, in went the bathing machine,
and everybody was satisfied except possibly the ubiquitous
person who 'never saw one look like that!', and who, in all
probability, had never 'seen' anything at all.
There is in the Victoria and Albert Museum a particularly
beautiful water-colour of 'Rhyl Sands^5 which is of approximately
similar date and in a closely similar mood to the Birmingham
picture. Doubtless it was one of the sketches from which Cox
'worked up' the oil painting. It differs appreciably from the
canvas in aspect and detail—though the position of the steam-
ship on the horizon should be noted in both cases. Of the oil,
I wrote in 1924 that its technique expressed 'more convincingly
than could be achieved by other means the currents in the
atmospheric envelope, and the effect produced upon it by the
passage of light and moisture.'* These words are equally
applicable to the South Kensington water colour. An excellent
test of its quality is that, although handled with great ease and
assurance, its technique does not force itself upon the attention,
but remains the perfect vehicle for the expression of a com-
pletely assimilated concept. It is one of the achievements that
indisputably stamp David Cox as a master.
There are other versions of the scene. In one of the many
interesting letters written to me by Mr. Walter Turner, while
this book was in progress, he vividly describes one of two
sketches of 'Rhyl Sands' in his own possession. 'Half the picture
is taken up by a breezy and rather stormy sky. The foreground
of wet sand, and beyond, dryer sand of a glowing sandy
texture. In the middle distance, a row of bathing machines, a
boat and two figures. Nearer the spectator, figures rushing
towards the sea, which is a luminous grey and takes up quite
a small proportion of the drawing—all done in a hurry, and
which only a lifetime of close observation and a real mastery of
* 'David Cox^1 (publ. Philip Allan). It should be noted that Cox exhibited a drawing of
•Sands at Khyl' at the O.W.S. in 1843, and a 'Coast of Rhyl' at the same in 1883.
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