About this artwork
Some twenty miles north-east of Dundee, Auchmithie was known to Victorian readers as the fishing village described by Sir Walter Scott in his novel, The Antiquary. Cox's photographs of the place expose a hard life, close to subsistence, in the vein of Hill and Adamson's Newhaven work. This image indicates Cox's concern with the visual possibilities of photographic 'distortion', seen in the movement of the boy's head. It also reflects a wider European interest amongst late nineteenth-century urban artists in remote communities and the values of naturalness and simplicity that they stood for.
Updated before 2020
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artist:
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title:At Auchmithie
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date created:1881
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materials:Platinum/palladium print
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measurements:29.50 x 19.40 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased 1983
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accession number:PGP 37.VOL 7.33
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gallery:
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subject:
James Cox
James Cox
James Cox was the eldest child of a wealthy jute manufacturing family. He was an amateur painter and photographer. In 1880 he helped set up the Dundee and East of Scotland Photographic Association and was its first president. An exhibitor at the Royal Scottish Academy from 1884-6, Cox was a member...