The Cock Tavern at Cheam


The Cock Tavern at Cheam is a c.1745 landscape painting by the Welsh artist Richard Wilson. It likely depicts the Cock Inn, a tavern located on Cheam Common in Sutton in Surrey, then a number of miles outside London. It was a well-known coaching inn on the road from the capital to Brighton. Two men sit outside at a table drinking ale, while in the background is uncultivated common land with grazing sheep.
It is now in the collection of the Tate Britain in Pimlico, having been acquired in a bequest from Stopford Brooke in 1916. A version is also in the Winnipeg Art Gallery.