Robert Cooke (artist)

Last updated
Robert Cooke
Born1815 (1815)
DiedSeptember 16, 1843 (1843-09-17) (aged 28)
Education Pendleton Lithographic Co.
Known for Painting, lithography

Robert Cooke was a portrait painter and lithographer of sheet music covers, portraits, buildings and city views in 19th century Boston. [1]

Contents

Early Career

Cooke began his career as a lithographer, apprenticing under William Pendleton at Pendleton Lithographic Co. in Boston. [2] In 1835, he assumed the position of chief draftsman for Pendleton, taking over the position from Thomas Moore. [1] Cooke held that position until 1839 when he left to open a studio with Benjamin Champney, his roommate, friend and fellow artist. [1] [2]

Cooke met with immediate acclaim as a painter but, despite this, continued to augment his income through the production of lithographs. [1] [2] This included "at least thirty original illustrations for sheet music covers, primarily for B.W. Thayer and Company" that he executed between 1839-1840. [1] This supplementary work was likely undertaken as part of Cooke and Champney's efforts at this time to save up funds for a trip to Europe - however, it is also possible he derived personal pleasure from the work as he was a musician himself, "accomplished on both the piano and the flute." [1] [2]

In Paris

By the spring of 1841, Cooke and Champney had accumulated sufficient funds to make their trip, setting sail from New York City on May 1, 1841 for France. [2] The two arrived at Le Havre but did not spend much time there, moving on to Paris by way of Rouen. [2] Once in Paris, the two artists settled at the Hotel Bergère Cité Bergère, a hotel that had been recommended to them by a fellow passenger on their ship. [2] They made short work of settling in and embarking on their "artistic studies." [2] Stephen A. Schoff, the engraver, who they had known in the States, gave them the benefit of "his knowledge and experience" and soon Cooke and Champney had secured a studio with rooms in the Rue de Lille, Faubourg St. Germain. [2] Fellow Bostonian, G.P.A. Healey "who was then well and prosperously established in Paris" also helped guide the newcomers and was instrumental in their joining an atelier "for drawing and painting from life" run by "an old model named Boudin, where for a few francs a month [they] could practice from the nude." [2]

Work at the atelier began at 6am which necessitated Cooke and Champney to rise every morning at 5am in order to get there on time by foot. [2] The model would then pose for one hour and everyone would take a 15 minute break at 7am. [2] Their four hours of study concluded at 11am, at which time they would go, "to the Louvre gallery, either to draw from the antique among the Elgin marbles, or to begin copies of the paintings we fancied." [2] Champney wrote of this time: "my friend Cooke, showing so marked a talent in heads and figures, was persuaded by some [English artists] to try sundry of their portraits, and he was successful, painting soon after one of a famous correspondent of the London Times, or Chronicle - a Mr. Crowe, as I remember - and thus he was in a fair way of getting on, and soon it became necessary for him to take a studio more convenient for him and his sitters." [2]

Cooke's new studio was located on the Boulevard des Capucins and Champney was left in sole possession of their Rue de Lille studio. [2]

Death

In 1842 or the early part of 1843, "Cooke, who was just beginning to be successful in a career of portrait painting among the English and Americans in Paris, was stricken with a dangerous illness." [2] Cooke was sent to the hospital for a "difficult operation" which proved unsuccessful. [2] A second operation followed, after which he "languished in the hospital for three months, losing strength and courage." [2]

At this juncture, Cooke's friends, including Champney, determined that it would be better for his health to be in more country-like surroundings. [2] They "found a little house and garden near the Barrière de l'Etoile, a place at that time much like the country." [2] An elderly English lady was hired to nurse him but, "although Cooke gained somewhat by the change of air and scene, still the dread disease was then sapping his life. Physicians visited him and endeavored to alleviate his condition, but vainly, and he languished for months." [2]

Eventually, Cooke's funds ran out, but his friends rallied to support him - this included organizing a private benefit concert that "yielded a net profit of 1000 francs." [2] Another group of fellow Americans raised 1500 francs towards his care. [2] Champney continued to visit his friend until the end, remarking "I went into the country every day for the purpose of making studies from nature... On my return at night I would stop to see [Cooke] and show him the result of my day's work which always interested him... This continued for many weeks. I had at last come to the conclusion that nothing could be done to save him, and early in the autumn he died." [2]

On October 9, 1843, the Boston Courier reported that Cooke had died of consumption in Paris on September 16 at the age of 28. [3] [2]

Legacy

More than 50 years after Cooke's death, Champney would write: "he would have become one of the most brilliant and characteristic of American portrait painters, I have not a doubt today, and I have by me now some work of his which fully bears me out in stating this. I am not sure but I might say he would have been a remarkable man in composition and figure painting had not his studies been so suddenly arrested... There is only one painting of his in Boston on exhibition, and that is in the Boston Museum on Tremont street [sic]. It is a copy of Poussin's 'Judgement of Solomon' in the Louvre." [2]

Collections

Existing collections that contain works by Robert Cooke:

Past collections that once contained Robert Cooke's work:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec</span> French painter and illustrator (1864–1901)

Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa, known as Toulouse-Lautrec, was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce a collection of enticing, elegant, and provocative images of the sometimes decadent affairs of those times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Fantin-Latour</span> French painter (1836–1904)

Henri Fantin-Latour was a French painter and lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honoré Daumier</span> French artist (1808–1879)

Honoré-Victorin Daumier was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second Napoleonic Empire in 1870. He earned a living producing caricatures and cartoons in newspapers and periodicals such as La Caricature and Le Charivari, for which he became well known in his lifetime and is still remembered today. He was a republican democrat, who satirized and lampooned the monarchy, politicians, the judiciary, lawyers, the bourgeoisie, as well as his countrymen and human nature in general.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilbert Stuart</span> American painter (1755–1828)

Gilbert Stuart was an American painter born in the Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-known work is an unfinished portrait of George Washington, begun in 1796, which is usually referred to as the Athenaeum Portrait. Stuart retained the original and used it to paint scores of copies that were commissioned by patrons in America and abroad. The image of George Washington featured in the painting has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for more than a century and on various postage stamps of the 19th century and early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Morris Hunt</span> American painter (1824–1879)

William Morris Hunt was an American painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitz Henry Lane</span> American painter

Fitz Henry Lane was an American painter and printmaker of a style that would later be called Luminism, for its use of pervasive light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellsworth Kelly</span> American painter, sculptor, and printmaker

Ellsworth Kelly was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, color and form, similar to the work of John McLaughlin and Kenneth Noland. Kelly often employed bright colors. He lived and worked in Spencertown, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvan Fisher</span> American painter

Alvan Fisher was an American landscape and genre painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Champney</span> American painter

Benjamin Champney was a painter known for his role in White Mountain art of the 19th century. He began his training as a lithographer under celebrated marine artist Fitz Henry Lane at Pendleton's Lithography shop in Boston. Most art historians consider him the founder of the "North Conway Colony" of painters who came to North Conway, New Hampshire, and the surrounding area during the second half of the 19th century. His paintings were often used to make chromolithographs that were subsequently sold to tourists who could not afford Champney's originals. He exhibited regularly at the Boston Athenæum and was a founder of the Boston Art Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Mountain art</span> 19th-century art depicting New Hampshire, US

White Mountain art is the body of work created during the 19th century by over four hundred artists who painted landscape scenes of the White Mountains of New Hampshire in order to promote the region and, consequently, sell their works of art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugène Carrière</span> French painter

Eugène Anatole Carrière was a French Symbolist artist of the fin-de-siècle period. Carrière's paintings are best known for their near-monochrome brown palette and their ethereal, dreamlike quality. He was a close friend of Auguste Rodin and his work likely influenced Pablo Picasso's Blue Period. He was also associated with such writers as Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé and Charles Morice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Wells Champney</span> American painter

James Wells Champney was an American genre artist and illustrator noted for his portraits, oriental scenes and American landscapes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Salmon</span> English painter

Robert Salmon was a maritime artist, active in both England and America. Salmon completed nearly 1,000 paintings, all save one of maritime scenes or seascapes. He is widely considered the Father of American Luminism.

James William Govett was an Australian impressionist who worked mostly in watercolor and oil, focusing on landscapes and portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Henry Bufford</span>

John Henry Bufford (1810-1870) was a lithographer in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pendleton's Lithography</span> Lithographic print studio in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, US

Pendleton's Lithography (1825–1836) was a lithographic print studio in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts, established by brothers William S. Pendleton (1795-1879) and John B. Pendleton (1798-1866). Though relatively short-lived, in its time the firm was prolific, printing portraits, landscape views, sheet music covers, and numerous other illustrations. The Pendleton's work might be characterized by its generosity—each print contains a maxima of visual information designed for graphic reproduction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin F. Nutting</span> American artist

Benjamin Franklin Nutting was an artist in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century. He taught drawing in local schools, published do-it-yourself drawing instruction materials, and showed his artwork in several exhibitions.

Thomas Badger (1792–1868) was an artist in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century. He specialized in portraits. He trained with John Ritto Penniman. Portrait subjects included: John Abbot; William Allen, of Bowdoin College; Asa Clapp; Julia Margaretta Dearborn; George B. Doane; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Benjamin Page; Thomas Paul, of Boston's African Meeting House; Jotham Sewall; Benjamin Vaughan; Charles Vaughan; Frances Western Apthorp Vaughan; George Wadsworth Wells; Jonathan Winship. Around 1849 a still life by Badger in the collection of the Boston Museum was considered "a highly finished and excellent picture, something in the style of Van Huysom. There is a truth and reality in the articles represented, seldom seen in this class of pictures."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John W. A. Scott</span>

John White Allen Scott was an American painter and lithographer associated with the Hudson River School and White Mountain art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugène Lepoittevin</span> French painter (1806–1870)

Eugène Lepoittevin, also known as Poidevin, Poitevin, and Le Poittevin, was a French artist who achieved an early and lifelong success as a landscape and maritime painter. His work ranged from erotic caricatures to massive battle scenes. His works are in the collections of many museums throughout France. He made many paintings set in and around the fishing village of Étretat, and in 2020 he was the subject of an exhibition and book, L'invention d'Étretat: Eugène Le Poittevin, un peintre et ses amis à l'aube de l'impressionnisme.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pierce, Sally; Slautterback, Catharina (1991). Boston Lithography, 1825-1880: The Boston Athenæum Collection. Boston, MA: Boston Athenæum. p. 168-169. ISBN   0934552576.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Champney, Benjamin (1900). Sixty Years' Memories of Art and Artists. Woburn, MA: Wallace & Andrews.
  3. Hewes, Samuel H. (October 9, 1843). "Died". Boston Courier (Volume: 16, Issue: 2029). Boston, MA.
  4. Cooke, Robert (1840). Hall's Quick Step (lithograph; 33.65 x 25.4 cm (13 1/4 x 10 in.)). Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  5. Cooke, Robert (c. 1840). Hosea Ballou II (lithograph on paper; 60.5 x 48.1cm (23 13/16 x 18 15/16")). Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery (United States). Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  6. Cooke, Robert (1840). Hall's Quick Step (lithograph; 33.02 × 24.77 cm (13 × 9 3/4 in.)). Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art. Retrieved August 17, 2024.
  7. Cooke, Robert (1837–1841). (various) (lithograph). Boston, MA: Boston Athenæum. Retrieved August 17, 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  8. Cooke, Robert. (various) (lithograph). Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  9. Cooke, Robert (c. 1840). The Judgement of Solomon (painting). Boston, MA (formerly): Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  10. Champney, Benjamin (1900). Sixty Years' Memories of Art and Artists. Woburn, MA: Wallace & Andrews. p. 37.