Edward William Cooke RA was a highly renowned English painter of marine scenes and landscapes who exhibited extensively at London’s Royal Academy, where he became a member.
Born in Pentonville, London, Cooke was raised in the company of accomplished artists as both his father, George Cooke (1781-1834), and his uncle, William Bernard Cooke (1778-1855), were engravers. As such, they were associated with a circle of Victorian painters who aided Cooke’s early development. These included the highly regarded marine painter Clarkson Frederick Stanfield RA RBA (1793-1867), who provided frequent advice and inspiration. Indeed, as a teenager, Cooke produced numerous drawings after Stanfield’s works.
A precocious talent, by the age of nine, he was already displaying an advanced understanding of engraving, particularly for ships, coupled with a natural, seemingly in-built skill as a draughtsman. Many of his early drawings depict pastoral landscapes after the masters, such as Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683), Paulus Potter (1625-1654), and Karel Dujardin (1626-1678).
In an extraordinary turn of events, in 1820, his advanced abilities led to his first commission when he provided botanical illustrations for John Loudon's 'Encyclopaedia of Plants’. These were followed by drawings published in the 'Botanical Cabinet' by George Loddiges. He worked tirelessly at the nursery grounds in Hackney, producing hundreds of representations upon wood, followed by around 400 watercolours.
Despite this youthful foray into botanics, ships were Cooke’s true passion and ultimately led to him undertaking a period of study under Captain Burton of the West-Indiaman, ‘Thetis’. During his time with Burton, he filled sketchbooks with depictions of vessels in the London docks while also advancing his knowledge of oil painting.
From here, having navigated his training, his career evolved at pace, and he began to travel extensively. First to Normandy, Havre, and Rouen (1830), next to Belgium, Holland, France, Scotland, and Ireland (1832-1844) and then to Scandinavia, Spain, North Africa and Venice. Working predominently outside, from life, an astonishing array of vistas, weather conditions, and topography were met by his brush.
He first visited the Netherlands in 1837 and returned regularly over the next 23 years, with the 17th-century Dutch marine artists a particular inspiration. These travels served a dual purpose - informing his work while also enhancing his breadth of worldly knowledge. Indeed, Cooke was a great deal more than a painter, as one obiturist noted: “His scientific attainments were marked by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a very rare honour for an artist, in addition to being a Member of the Geological, Linnean, and other learned societies, testifying to his refined tastes and scientific pursuits.”
His commitment to both art and science led to an array of plaudits, including his election to the academies at London, Stockholm and Venice. Over 120 of his works were shown at the Royal Academy in London.
In his later years, he settled in East Grinstead, Sussex, where he “lived the life of a quiet country gentleman in his beautifully situated house on a ridge of hills near Tunbridge Wells, on the confines of the counties of Kent and Sussex.”
He’s represented in numerous major public collections, including at the National Gallery, Tate Britain, the V&A, and the Royal Academy.
Exhibited
Royal Academy, British Institution, Royal Society of British Artists.
Public Collections
The National Gallery, Tate Britain, V&A Museum, Royal Academy of Arts, The Courtauld, Walker Art Gallery, Yale Center for British Art, Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Art in Washington, Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Harvard University Art Museums, National Library of Australia, The Huntington Library in California, Wichita Art Museum, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum and Galleries, Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Bury Art Museum, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Castle Cornet, Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery, Ferens Art Gallery, Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre, Guildhall Art Gallery, Jersey Museum and Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, National Maritime Museum, National Trust at Cragside, Norris Museum, Royal Holloway at the University of London, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Shipley Art Gallery, Somerset Heritage Centre, Stationers' Hall, Sudley House, The Fitzwilliam Museum, The Wilson, Touchstones Rochdale, Wigan Arts and Heritage Service, Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Timeline
1811
Born in Pentonville, London to George Cooke, an engraver.
1820
Provided drawings for John Loudon's 'Encyclopaedia of Plants’.
1825
Made the acquaintance of Clarkson Frederick Stanfield RA RBA (1793-1867).
Studied under Captain Burton of the Thetis.
1826
Sketched in Cromer, Norfolk.
1829
Published a series of engravings titled ‘Shipping and Craft’.
1830
Travelled to Normandy, Havre, and Rouen.
1832
Produced a series of drawings for Earl de Grey.
1832-1844
Travelled extensively, including to Belgium, Holland, France, Scotland, and Ireland.
1833
Began painting in oils.
1834
Studied under the landscape painter James Stark (1794-1859).
1835
Debuted at the Royal Academy with ‘Honfleur Fishing Boats Becalmed’ and ‘Hay Barge off Greenwich’. He continued to exhibit throughout his life, missing only three years. Over 120 works were shown.
Debuted at the British Institution.
1840
Married Jane Loddiges in Hackney.
1841
Lived in Barnes, Surrey, with his mother and siblings. Occupation recorded as ‘Artist’.
1845-1846
Lived in Italy.
Visited Spain, Morocco, Barbary, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.
1851
Lived in Kensington, London, with his mother, siblings, son and staff. Occupation recorded as ‘Marine + Landscape Painter’.
Elected an associate of the Royal Academy.
1858
Elected a member of the National Academy of Design.
1864
Elected a member of the Royal Academy.
1871
Lived in East Grinstead, Sussex, with his mother, siblings, son and staff. Occupation recorded as ‘Marine + Landscape Painter’.
1880
Died in Groombridge, near Tunbridge Wells.
Reviews
The Newcastle Daily Chronicle (1863)
“Was it not Coleridge who said that the true antithesis was not poetry and prose, but poetry and science? And is not painting poetry on canvas? A painter among the philosophers is, then, a rather close impersonation of Coleridge's dictum! But Mr. Cooke, like a true artist, probably thinks, as Ruskin does, that nothing is foreign to his craft. Science to such a man is only the anxiliary of art. So Mr. Cooke may be honoured as much for his achievements in art as his studies in science.
Edward William Cooke was born in London in 1811. His father was an eminent engraver, and the taste for art descended to his son. Mr. Cooke's first productions were sketches of plants intended as illustrations for the ‘Botanic Cabinet’ and ‘London's Encyclopædia.’ He subsequently engaged in marine sketching, and in 1832 commenced painting in oil. He completed his artistic education in Italy and France, and in 1851 was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. Several of Mr. Cooke's works are now in the South Kensington Museum, among them being his celebrated pictures of ‘Brighton Sands,’ ‘Portsmouth Harbour,’ and ‘Hastings from All Saints' Church.’ Another of his works was recently on view at Mr. Hare's Gallery in Grey Street. As some acknowledgement of his services to science, Mr. Cooke has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.”
The Art Journal (1869)
“A biographical sketch of this eminent and justly popular marine-painter would necessarily be imperfect if it did not speak of him as a man of science as well as an artist; for his attainments in other pursuits than that in which he is most widely known have gained him admittance into many of the most distinguished learned corporations. He is the son of the late Mr. George Cooke, the celebrated landscape-engraver, and was born at Pentonville, London, March 27th, 1811. Inheriting from his father a feeling for Art, we find him at a very early age exercising his tiny fingers in copying the animals engraved in Barr's edition of 'Buffon,' and the woodcuts in Bewick's works; and also in making wax models of animals and of boats, &c.
His talent for drawing must indeed have been precocious; for before he had reached his ninth year, he was engaged in drawing upon wood several thousand plants from nature, in the nursery grounds of Messrs. Loddiges, Hackney, to illustrate Loudon's 'Encyclopædia of Plants;' these were followed by about four hundred drawings in water-colours, which the boy-artist subsequently etched for Loddiges' 'Botanical Cabinet.' It would naturally be supposed that amid so much laborious occupation the general education of the boy must have been neglected: it was not so, however, for he was sent to school at Grove House, Woodford, a fine old hunting-lodge of Queen Elizabeth, where his pencil was not forgotten among other studies, the 'bits' of architecture, the carvings, the decorated Twelve of the principal of these subjects he engraved on large copper-plates, and published them, with letterpress by the late George Rennie, C.E., entitled 'Old and New London Bridges.' These plates are held in much estimation.
During the removal of the Egyptian Antiquities from the old to the new rooms of the British Museum, he made a series of sketches of the operations and machinery for the late Mr. Edward Hawkins. In 1830 he started on his first Continental trip, spending several months in Normandy, in making water-colour drawings at Havre, ceilings, quaint fireplaces, heraldic arms, &c., &c., affording numerous subjects for the exercise of his talents. At fourteen years of age these talents, diverse as they had hitherto shown themselves in their development, were concentrated upon ships and boats.
The acquaintance of the late Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., led to his making for him sketches of boats, anchors, fishing-baskets, and gear of all kinds: of these objects, he produced a vast number of drawings in the year 1825. But in order to render himself thoroughly acquainted with ships and rivercraft, he studied under Capt. Burton, of the Thetis, West-Indiaman, making many hundred sketches in the Docks, Pool of the Thames, and lower down the river. In the same year (1825) he tried his juvenile hand in oil-painting, the subject being the sign of the 'Old Ship Hotel, Brighton. This first picture is still in Mr. Cooke's possession.
He then took up the study of architecture under the elder Pugin, but which he gave up for boats, commenced a series of fifty etched plates of Shipping and Craft, executed on copper; these were published at intervals during ing three successive years, and were followed by twelve plates, on copper, entitled 'Coast Sketches,' and by several others, published under the name of 'The British Coast.' All of them found favour with the public, and are yet sought after by collectors of marine prints for their truth of nature and artistic rendering.
A large portion of the summer and autumn of 1826 was passed sketching on the south-east coast of England, and as far north as Cromer, and of views in London and its vicinity. His first oil picture from nature was painted this year; it was a small work, a view of Broadstairs, and it found a purchaser in the late Mr. James Wadmore, of Stamford Hill, the well-known, amateur, at the price of eight pounds. At the sale of Mr. Wadmore's collection, a few years ago, this picture realised seventy-eight pounds. Several others, also painted from nature, - views on the Isis at Oxford, and on the Isle of Wight coast, followed this at intervals during the subsequent three or four years. Between 1825 and 1831, when the new London Bridge was being constructed, Mr. Cooke made, with the aid of the camera lucida, seventy drawings of the operations, including the demolition of the old bridge.
Rouen, the banks of the Seine, &c.; and in 1832 he executed a Kouen, series of pencil-drawings of carved figures for the late Earl De Grey. Between 1832 and 1844 his 'sketching-ground' was the Channel Islands, Scilly, Cornwall, Scotland, Ireland, Normandy, the coasts of France, Belgium, and Holland. The last-named country he visited sixteen times, and took advantage of the opportunity to make copies of pictures at Amsterdam by Ostade and Van der Velde. In 1845-6 more than a year was passed in Italy, on the Riviera, Rome, Naples, Capri, Calabria, &c., painting oil pictures on the spot, and making a very large number of sketches in pencil. Mr. Cooke's more recent trips have been to Venice, where he painted during fifteen seasons; to the Adriatic, the east and south coast of Spain, Gibraltar, Cadiz, Seville, Madrid, also in Morocco, on the coast of Barbary, in Friesland, North Germany, and the Baltic, Denmark and Sweden: and as a member of the Alpine Club, he made numerous drawings on the higher Alps, in Switzerland, Piedmont, &c. Nor must we omit to mention that on the laying down of the first Atlantic cable he spent six weeks on each occasion at Valencia, and on board the Agamemnon: here he commenced his series of highly-finished pictures in oil to illustrate the chief geological features of the British coast.
We have entered upon these details - possibly some may think unnecessarily to let our readers know how industriously this artist has been occupied from his very earliest childhood in qualifying himself for the Art he professes; and also to show the range of country where he has studied. And if it be asked what results have followed all these years of travel by land and by sea, and all the close observation of nature and of marine and land architecture, the reply must be sought in the series of paintings which, scarcely without a year's intermission, have hung on the Pier-Sloop returning to Port,' one of the best works in the exhibition; a work of which the English school may justly a be proud. It is as true to nature as nature is to herself.
Mr. Cooke has this year established his reputation; he exhibits largely, and, without an exception, all his pictures are excellent. No. 174, ‘Scheveling Sands,' and No. 188, 'A Dutch Fish-waggon,' have both groups of figures exquisitely painted; part is carefully finished, and the effect of the whole is admirable. To the same gallery he sent, in the year following, four pictures, three of which were sold soon after the exhibition opened: opened: two of these, 'Mont St. Michel-Peasants returning to Ponterson on the Approach of the Tide,' and 'French Herring-boat running into the Port of Havre-de-Grace,' realised 160 guineas each, each, a a large large sum sum at at that that date, date, and for the works of a comparatively young painter: the first of the two named was purchased by the late Marquis of Lansdowne. The directors of the Institution awarded to the painter one of the four prizes offered for works of distinguished merit. ‘Shrimpers and Montois on the Sands of St. Michel, Normandy,' exhibited at the Academy in 1843, was, perhaps, the best picture he had hitherto produced.
Referring to the notes appended to our catalogues of the Academy exhibition from year to year we find that Mr. Cooke's walls of the Royal Academy and the British Institution for a period extending to one-third of a century. It has been already stated that he made his first Continental trip, to Normandy, in 1830, and that two or three years afterwards he revisited the country which gave him the subject of one of the two pictures that were his earliest contributions to the Royal Academy in 1835. This was 'Honfleur Fishing-boats becalmed,' Havre in the distance; its companion was 'A Hay-barge, off Gravesend.' In the three succeeding years he exhibited, among others, ‘Mending the Bait-net, Shanklin; French Sloops, &c., off Granville;' 'Collecting Seaweed in St. Aubyn's Bay, Jersey, Dutch boats on the Y, near Zaandam.'
The British Institution, now unhappily no longer in existence, was always considered a kind of nursery for young painters to try their strength; and it was in our notice of the exhibition of 1839, the year in which the Art-Journal was established, that we thus wrote:- ‘Mr. E. W. Cooke exhibits some exquisite landscapes; the most interesting of which are a series of pictures of Rembrandt's Mill, near Leyden, taken under various aspects, within and without; and two cabinet 'bits,' 'Sorting Shrimps' and 'Dutch Boats.' But in the following year his contributions extorted from us still higher praise:-' No. 44, E.W. Cooke, Calais contributions are almost invariably spoken of in highly eulogistic terms. There is a point beyond which an artist, whatever his capacity, can scarcely be expected to go; and when one has reached undisputed excellence, his power of progress has attained its limits. And thus it is, that for the last quarter of a century, Mr. Cooke has annually placed before the public a succession of pictures which, whatever the localities or the objects they repre-sent and these are sufficiently diversified-manifest powers as a marine painter that have elicited from time to time unqualified admiration even from the most exacting critics. A few only of these can be enumerated here.
Taking first his Dutch and North Sea pictures: 'A Dutch Calm' (1849) is beautiful from the profound tranquillity that pervades every object; the sails of the group of boats on the left hang listlessly, the glassy surface of the water is unruffled by a single ripple, and the very clouds indicate that not a breath of air could be felt in the upper regions. As a contrast to this we may point out, 'A North Sea Breeze on the Dutch Coast-Scheveling Fishermen Hauling the Pinck out of the Surf' (1855), a large composition, wherein everything shows active motion; the wind is off the sea, and the surf is making a breach over the boat forward. The work unites the artist's earlier freshness of style with his matured experience. ‘Thunder - cloud passing over the Dutch Coast-Tide on the Turn' (1857), shows little else than a long stretch of sandy shore, with a fishing-boat and figures, but all painted with masterly effect, and thorough minuteness of detail; this latter quality is strikingly visible in all Mr. Cooke's works.
A bright and sunny picture is Zuyder Zee - Fishing Craft in a Calm (1860), painted with great truth, and in most agreeable harmony of colour. To these may be added Broekenhaven, a Fishing Port of the Zuyder Zee' (1842); 'Antwerp, from the Scheldt-Morning' (1844); 'Dutch Fishing-boats off the Booms, Amsterdam' (1850); ‘Dutch Fishing-pincks of Egmont-aan-Zee hauling off Shore' (1854); 'Dutch Trawlers at Anchor,' and 'Catalan Bay, Gibraltar' (1863), - the latter not only beautiful as a picture, but extraordinary as an example of geological painting; 'Ruins of a Roman Bridge' (1863), and the huge skeleton whale, under the title of 'A Visitor from High Latitudes,' a singular and striking work, with many others.
A noble picture by this artist, ‘The Goodwin Light-Ship-Morning after a Gale,' exhibited at the Academy in 1857, was thus spoken of by Mr. Ruskin at the time:- 'Very awful, after we have looked at it a little while; at least that bronze vessel is so to me - a ship that is not, and yet is-the true spectre ship, whose sight is destruction; nor less so the skeleton of the boat. ‘Maria Della Salute, Venice,' exhibited in 1862, is a bright, silvery, daylight scene, clear and transparent in colour. He has occasionally painted the same subject under the effect of sunset.
What a contrast to it is offered in the next subject, 'H.M.S. Terror In The Ice Of Frozen Strait’, April, 1837.' Here we have a more vivid idea of the awful perils of arctic navigation than any written description can afford: it is a scene of utter desolation, which almost freezes the current of the blood to look upon. In the arrangement of materials and truth of execution, the picture is a masterwork. It was exhibited at the Academy in 1860. A contrast to both the above is the 'French Lugger Running Into Calais Harbour,' exhibited in 1854. Here all is life and motion; clouds, water, and vessels battling with stormy wind. Waves were never painted with more vitality and freedom than here.
It was remarked at the outset of this notice that Mr. Cooke is entitled to be considered as a man of science as well as an artist. In his various journeys he collected a large mass of botanical specimens, and objects of natural history, mostly marine. He has devoted much study to this science, and especially to the growth of ferns under glass, and in 'Ward's Cases;' and also to the study of the microscope, inventing the object disc which bears his name, and is well known in the scientific world.
It is a wondrous change of scenery from the low coast of Holland and the rough waves of the North Seas to the quiet waters of the Adriatic and the picturesque architecture of Venice, of which Mr. Cooke has, during the last twenty years, given us so many beautiful examples. The 'Calm sea-glories of Venice,' to adopt Mr. Ruskin's phraseology, have found skilful and poetic delineator in the artist whom Backhuysen and Van der Velde would have welcomed in Holland. These Venetian pictures are so numerous as to preclude even a bare enumeration of them with-out far exceeding our prescribed limits; but what is specially noticeable in them is that Mr. Cooke here shows himself as truthful in representing the architecture of these palatial residences and magnificent ecclesiatical edifices as he does in that of a Dutch-man's pinck or an English fishing-boat. Then, too, he has occasionally exhibited pictures of Rhenish scenery, Cologne, Coblentz, Ehrenbreitstein, views on the African coast, and that of Spain: our own has been almost neglected by him. The three subjects Mr. Cooke has afforded us the opportunity of engraving are very diversified.
Another of his favourite pursuits has been the collecting objects of Italian medieval Art, and latterly forming a large and valuable collection of Venetian glass, many examples of which are now on loan to the South Kensington Museum. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1851, and member in 1864, and a Fellow of the following scientific societies: The Royal Society, Linnean, Geological, Zoological, Geographical, Microscopal, Edinburgh Archeological, and Graphic; a member of the British Association, the Architectural Museum, at which he delivered the inaugural lecture, when the association was first established in Canon Row; and also a member of the Atheneum, Fine Arts, Alpine and Royal Society Clubs. The Royal Academy of Stockholm and the Academy of the Belle Arti of Venice have enrolled him among their members.
We must not omit to notice that Mr. Cooke has shown great interest in the Lifeboat Institution, his semi-nautical life calling forth strong sympathy with those exposed to the dangers of the seas. We believe that the 'Van Kook' lifeboat, on the North Deal station, was his liberal gift to the society: a picture of it rescuing the crew of a barque on the Goodwin Sands was painted by him, and exhibited at the Academy in 1866.
James Dafforne.”
Obituaries
The Standard
“We regret to announce that Mr. Edward William Cooke, the Roya Academician, died on Sunday, after a brief illness, at the age of 68, at his residence, Glen Audred, in the village of Groombridge, a short distance from Tunbridge Wells. Mr. Cooke, who was the son of that eminent engraver the late Mr. George Cooke, was born in London, and early developed a talent for art.
This was sedulously encouraged by his father, who placed him under the tuition of the elder Pugin. With him he studied perspective and architecture, and then devoted himself to book illustrations, his principal efforts being directed to the illustration of botanical works, including among others Loudon's Encyclopedia and Loddige's Botanical Cabinet. Continuing his career as an illustrator and engraver, he published-and this was his first publication-' Shipping and Craft,' for which he drew and etched fifty plates, and then drew and engraved twelve large plates of old and New London Bridges, published in one volume, after which he turned his attention to paint ing in oil and water colours.
His first works were coast and Dutch subjects, large rough sea and marine views, in which he excelled. In depicting these he may be said to have been thoroughly at home, for Holland was to him at this time a second Fatherland. He visited the country no fewer than sixteen times, and never tired of depicting its pleasant pastures, its calm dykes, or its rougher seas. Having once taken to the brush, he became an exceedingly fertile painter and between 1845 and 1854 executed nearly 100 pictures of Italian subjects.
After visiting Scandinavia he commenced a series of visits to Venice, and painted a large number of its principal buildings, with the fishing craft of the city of the Doges and its lagoons. These were succeeded by works on a large scale of Arctic scenes, and of scenes in Spain and Morocco, the picturesqueness of the costumes and the buildings in the two countries lending themselves harmoniously to his style. One large work of this class appeared in the Royal Academy Exhibition for 1864, and was greatly admired. The deceased artist was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1850, and was admitted to the full honours of the Academy in 1863, in which year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was also a Fellow of the Linuean, the Zoological, the Geographical, and the Geological Societies, of the Alpine Club, and of the Architectural Museum.
Of late years, Mr. Cooke had not produced much, but led the life of a quiet country gentleman in his beautifully situated house on a ridge of hills near Tunbridge Wells, on the confines of the counties of Kent and Sussex. His illness had only been of about a fortnight's duration, but last week he contracted a heavy cold, and this was accompanied by inflammation. Medical assistance was called in, and all that professional skill could do was done, but without avail, as Mr. Cooke gradually got worse, and expired on Sunday.”
Deal, Warmer & Sandwich Mercury
“The North Deal Lifeboat ‘Van Kook’
We lament to record the death, on the 4th January last, of this distinguished marine artist and Member of the Royal Academy. By Mr. Cooke's death the National Life-boat Institution has lost one of its oldest friends. In 1865 he presented to it a lifeboat, the cost of which was defrayed by himself and his triends, some of the most eminent artists of the day contributing to his Lifeboat Fund. He wished the boat to be named, from his German descent, the 'Van Kook,' and it was stationed by the Institution at Deal.
[...]
Mr. Cooke was in the sixty-ninth year of his age when he died at his house, Tunbridge Wells. He was one of the best known and most skilful landscape and marine painters of his time.
He was born in London in 1811, the son and pupil of Mr. George Cooke, renowned as a pupil of Basire, and brother of Mr. W. Bernard Cooke, an eminent line engraver, who, among other works, produced 'River Scenery,' after Turner and Girtin. George Cooke was even better known as an engraver of Turner's pictures, especially those of 'The Southern Coast' (1814-1826), which he published in conjunction with his brother. Practising as an engraver and as the assistant of his father, Edward William Cooke, until he was twenty years of age, was employed in making illustrations in the 'Botanical Cabinet' and 'London Encyclopædia.'
To this early exercise of his powers may be due his ardent study of and other plants. Many coast views and topographical plates were executed by him. He took part in preparing the work 'London and its Vicinity,' fifty plates of drawings made in previous years, and published in 1826, being contributed by him. In 1829, he published 'Fifty Plates of Shipping and Craft,' being his own drawings and etchings. He made and etched the drawings of old and new London Bridges, which his father published in 1833. The singular ability thus shown excited so much surprise that teen years of age could have produced such works; sceptics very unreasonably attributed them to his father or his uncle.
After practising as an engraver and water-colour painter, Mr. E. W. Cooke turned his attention to oil-painting, and by 1832 had made considerable progress in this direction. The first public fruits of these studies appeared early at the Royal Academy Exhibitions. He was a most assiduous artist, and his sketches, which he showed to us, could only be counted by hundreds, and he was ever ready to say that he owed everything nearly to his untiring industry.
In addition to knowing thoroughly the coasts of his native land and all their geological and other characteristics, he also visited all parts of Europe to find work for his facile pencil, thus producing for many years in succession a considerable number of harbour, bay, and cliff subjects, with numerous shipping and figures. 'Mending the Bait-net, Shanklin,' and 'Hastings Sands,' 1836, indicated the earlier fields of his studies. These were followed by 'French Sloop, &c., off Granville, Normandy,' and 'Collecting Seaweed, St. Aubin's Bay, Jersey.'
A Dutch journey, fruitful of pictures, and the first of many voyages in the same direction, was illustrated by 'Dutch Boats on the Y,' 1837. After this time, he borrowed subjects from Naples, the Zuyder Zee, the Gulf of Genoa, Venice, Marseilles, Calais, Cornwall, the Goodwin Sands, Weymouth, the Isle of Wight, Mount's Bay, Mont St. Michel, Scheveningen, Yarmouth, and the Nile. Some of his better known works are 'Dutch Boats on the Dollart Zee,' 'A Calm Day in the Scheldt,' 'A Bit of English Coast,' 'Catalan Bay, Gibraltar,' (R.A., 1863), 'The Goodwin Lightship,' 'The Lifeboat Rescue on the Goodwin Sands,' 'A Dutch Galliot Aground,' 'H.M.S. 'Terror,' Abandoned,' 1800.
Mr. Cooke was elected A.R.A. in 1851. He became a Royal Academician in 1864, when he exhibited 'Scheveningen Pinks running to anchor off Yarmouth.' The nature of his art, honourable as it was to him - distinguished by care, studious drawing, and thorough painting - is too well known to need any detailed description. His scientific attainments were marked by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society, a very rare honour for an artist, in addition to being a Member of the Geological, Linnean, and other learned societies, testifying to his refined tastes and scientific pursuits.”