David Cox Snr � Bolton Abbey at SunsetA beautiful atmospheric watercolour signed by David Cox (lower left). Painted in the mid-1840s. Watercolour heightened with bodycolour on Scotch, oatmeal paper, backed onto an old sheet of paper and presented in a gilt-wood frame with gallery label verso. A similar view by Cox is in the collection of the British Museum; number 1878,1228.68. Provenance: The Swan Gallery, Dorset, 2019: Ex Caroline Gee collection, 2023.Sheet: 10 3/8 x 14 1/8 in. (26.4 x 35.8 cm.)Frame: 16 5/8 x 19 3/4 in. (42.4 x 50 cm.)This wonderfully atmospheric watercolour was previously thought to depict Tintern Abbey. The flight of birds set against the setting sun and the wandering cattle evoke a mysterious stillness that romanticises the ruined abbey. Bolton Abbey in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, England, takes its name from the ruins of the 12th-century Augustinian monastery now known as Bolton Priory.The bold handling of present watercolour is characteristic of the artist�s extraordinarily loose, fluid style which he began to develop in the 1830s. His technique is further emphasised by the rough oatmeal paper that he has used. As Peter Bower noted �Cox liked papers that allowed him to work fast with a heavily loaded brush� (P. Bower, �A Remarkable Understanding�, in Sun, Wind, and Rain: The Art of David Cox, 2008-9, p. 96).In 1836, Cox found a strong wrapping paper, known by Cox as �Scotch� paper. The coarse grain and the high absorbency rate of the paper made it unsuitable for the more usual fine brushwork and even washes employed by many of his contemporaries and appealed to Cox�s desire to experiment with and push watercolour to its full potential. He was so taken with the effects that the paper could produce, that he bought a ream of it, however, Cox didn�t always find the challenge easy and he wrote to his son, �My drawing upon Scotch paper is so rough I fear I shall bring down all against me, but the paper had plagued me so t...