White Cloud, John Rogers Cox

In the 1940s, at the same time that he served as
founding director of the Swope Art Museum, John
Rogers Cox was gaining a reputation as an important
new artist. Among his most famous and critically
acclaimed works is White Cloud, which won Third
Prize at the prestigious Paintings of the United States
exhibition at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh in
1943. Purchased almost immediately after its debut,
this work remained in a private collection for over
fifty years, until acquired by the Swope.

Not content to leave his work alone, in 1946 Cox
contacted the painting’s owner and received
permission to rework it. He replaced a barn, as seen
in the conservation x-ray images at right, with the
Gothic house now seen in the background. He also
reworked the sky and cloud, and added a new date to
the painting.