Edward William Cocks (born ) was a British painter employed as a scenic artist at

Vauxhall Gardens Vauxhall Gardens is a public park in Kennington in the London Borough of Lambeth, England, on the south bank of the River Thames. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, it is believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660, being ...

. He is now known for his paintings of balloon ascents.

Dioramas

Large-scale painting was an innovation at Vauxhall Gardens tried in 1823, with a 24 metre high picture of the

Bay of Naples A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

as an attraction, used as background for a firework display. In 1828 Cocks showed a six-picture

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

at Vauxhall Gardens, on the

River Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , sourc ...

. He presented also a "Hydroptic Exhibition" at the Gardens, in a tradition of elaborate water features set by R. Morris, who worked for the stage with

Charles Dibdin the younger Charles Isaac Mungo Dibdin (17 October 1768 – 15 January 1833), or Charles Pitt or Charles Dibdin the younger, as he was professionally known, was an English dramatist, composer, writer and theatre proprietor. He was perhaps best known ...

. Involving fire as well as water, it was an allegory of naval supremacy. Advertising for the season's opening that year included "The Scenery, with various paintings and many New Cosmoramas, dispersed about the Gardens, by Mr. Cocks and Assistants." In 1834 the Gardens celebrated the return of the second Ross expedition with a display including allegorical icebergs, advertised as "Principal Artist:Mr. Cocks, Principal Machinist:Mr. Lowe".Russell A. Potter, ''Icebergs at Vauxhall'', Victorian Review Vol. 36, No. 2, Natural Environments (Fall 2010), pp. 27–31, at pp. 28–30. Published by: Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41413847 For the Arctic display or "cosmorama", Cocks and three assistants worked from Ross's own drawings. In 1836 Cocks painted a diorama of the new

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

for the Gardens. The year 1838 saw a revival of the Ross panorama with its whales, bears and intrepid boat expeditions. Facing financial difficulties,

Frederick Gye Frederick Gye (the younger) (1810–1878) was an English businessman and opera manager who for many years ran what is now the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Life Gye, son of Frederick Gye (the elder), was born at Finchley, Middlesex, in 1810 ...

sold Vauxhall Gardens in 1840. In 1841 was advertised a cosmorama of "the Embarkation of the Body of Napoleon" and "the Bombardment of Acre" painted by "Mr. Cocks". It was at the Royal Gallery of Practical Science, Adelaide Street, London. Known as the Adelaide Gallery, this early technology museum had been set up in 1832, by a group including

Jacob Perkins Jacob Perkins (9 July 1766 – 30 July 1849) was an American inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. Born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Perkins was apprenticed to a goldsmith. He soon made himself known with a variety of useful mechanical ...

and

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...

Balloon ascents

On 7 November 1836 Charles Green set off from Vauxhall Garden on a balloon ascent that broke current records. It lasted 18 hours, and the party of three including

Thomas Monck Mason Thomas Monck Mason (1803–1889) was a flute player, writer, and balloonist. He wrote concerning his famous fabricated global balloon trip and on theology. Biography Monck Mason was born in 1803. He spent some years studying the flute abroad af ...

and Robert Hollond, landed in Weilburg, Duchy of Nassau in Germany the next day, having travelled 500 miles. Cocks was commissioned to paint a set of six commemorative pictures.''Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society'', vol. 61 (1957), p. IV. Paintings relating to the flight were left to the

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

Winifred Penn-Gaskell Winifred Ethel Penn-Gaskell (12 November 1874 – 6 November 1949) was a British philatelist who in 1938 was the first woman to be added to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists.Background notes on The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists Septembe ...

. He also was involved the fatal ascent and jump of Robert Cocking the following year. Cocks painted Cocking's parachute, for the attempt of 24 June 1837.

Works

One of the paintings held by the Science Museum, ''Balloon Leaving Dover'' (1840) relates to the 1785 balloon ascent of

Jean-Pierre Blanchard Jean-Pierre rançoisBlanchard (4 July 1753 – 7 March 1809) was a French inventor, best known as a pioneer of gas balloon flight, who distinguished himself in the conquest of the air in a balloon, in particular the first crossing of the Englis ...

and

John Jeffries John Jeffries (5 February 1744 – 16 September 1819) was an American physician, scientist, and military surgeon with the British Army in Nova Scotia and New York during the American Revolution. He is best known for accompanying French invent ...

. Of the set of six directly representing the Weilburg flight, four were in a private collection in 1957, when they were offered for sale. At that point it was suggested that the set had been commissioned by Richard Hollond.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cocks, Edward William 1800s births Year of death missing 19th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English male artists