The interiors of Welsh cottages were a popular subject for Cox. William Hall in his Biography of David Cox, 1881, p. 108 records that ‘cottage interiors – of which there were several in easy reach, and extremely good subjects – were of course the chief places of resort on wet days, and Cox made some admirable studies from the more picturesque of them’. Cox would have delighted in drawing this large open fireplace, the quaint, parochial furniture and the unusual objects hanging from the walls or on the mantlepiece. It is possible that the figure in the chair is a fellow artist warming himself after a damp morning sketching.
For a biographical note on the artist, please see lot 40.