There was a time when pausing in a subdued environment dappled with the sunlit jeweled tones of stained glass helped to bring one closer to God. It may still work. Certainly, the British born artist Walter I. Cox, managed to recreate serenity in this meditation of a cathedral interior. In his earlier years, Cox moved around. At first, he was off to Paris for study at the renown Académie Julien. But perhaps hearing from Californian artists like Guy Rose and Arthur F. Mathews, who also studied there around the same time, San Francisco appealed as the next stop. He settled there in 1904 with a studio on Van Ness and painted landscapes inspired by the beautiful region. However, in April 1906 a massive regional earthquake and the follow-on city fires destroyed most of his remaining work. In the 1920s, Cox was a portraitist in New York, whose sitters included notables such as President and later Chief Justice William Taft, and also President Warren G. Harding, with a dash of the British aristocracy thrown in. Cox also painted works inspired by his world travels, perhaps even this one. Signature at bottom right.