GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Crossing the Sands by David Cox)

This is pretty much the only painting that we looked at within the museum and art gallery, primarily as we headed to look at the exhibit on Birmingham’s history in the museum section. But, for sake of completeness and since I took a photo of it, here it is….

It’s Crossing the Sands by David Cox, painted in 1848 and donated to the gallery in 1882. One interesting element is that the donor was Joseph Henry Nettlefold, who gave the artwork on the condition that the gallery opened to the public on Sundays. It’s perhaps fortunate that he did, since we were visiting the gallery on a Sunday….. The gallery holds a relatively large collection of works by Cox, who was a local man who was born and died in Birmingham, working here between 1841 and 1859.

This particular artwork shows market people crossing the sands of Morecambe Bay on horses, making efforts to try and stay warm in the cold winds.