The Painting
A watercolour measuring 11½” x 17”. Attributed to Samuel Cox Junior, circa 1838.

About the Artist
Samuel Cox Junior (born 1798) was a professional artist resident in Daventry, Northamptonshire, in the early 19th century. He was descended from a well-known family of Northampton and Daventry stone carvers, responsible for many fine monuments in churches around the county (see Northamptonshire Past and Present, Vol. 1, No. 6, pp. 19-38). His father, Samuel Cox (1767-1851), was a stone carver and artist. Either the father or the son had a picture gallery in Daventry in the 1820s-30s. This watercolour is similar in style to the lithograph ‘Scene on the Ice and Banks of the New Reservoir near Daventry, Tuesday February 13th, 1838’, published by Samuel Cox Junior from one of his drawings (British Museum, accession no. 1931,1114.202). The style and dress of the figures in the lithograph is particularly similar, and Holy Cross Church appears in the far right background.

The Subject
South-East View of Holy Cross Church, Daventry. Holy Cross is an ironstone church of 1752-8 by David Hiorne of Warwick. It is the only 18th-century town church in Northamptonshire, and is described by The Buildings of England as ‘a remarkably monumental building for a small town’. Along the south side are giant pilasters, and the chancel has a Venetian window. The tower has pairs of pilasters on its bell-stage, a small octagonal clock stage, and an obelisk spire. Two of the sheep in the foreground bear the initials I.B, presumably of the farmer.