On the Conway River, North Wales 

David Cox created this watercolor, "On the Conway River, North Wales" using pigments that were becoming increasingly available thanks to industrial chemistry. The appeal of watercolor has always been its portability and immediacy. It’s a medium that favors capturing a fleeting impression, as we see here in the quickly brushed strokes. However, consider the context in which Cox was working. The first railways were being built in Britain at this time, making the countryside newly accessible. More and more people were venturing out into nature, not to work, but for leisure. Cox efficiently captures the picturesque scene, with an eye toward an emerging tourist market. The very speed and convenience of watercolor was suited to an age of accelerating social and technological change, and a growing appetite for landscape imagery. This painting, therefore, is not simply a rendering of a place, but an artifact of its time, an early example of art that sought to satisfy a growing commercial appetite.