Cooke made numerous trips throughout Europe and North Africa. In 1860, in company with Robert Bateman, he undertook a journey around Spain towards Tangier, travelling en route through Catalonia, Valencia and Andalucia. A new, more luminous quality began to pervade the colours in his work. The light of the Mediterranean can be seen even in his pencil sketches, which show clarity and the sense of exoticism that Spain awakened in European travellers.

In 1861 he sailed to Malaga on board the ‘Mercurio’, where on arrival he called on the British Consul, William Penrose Mark, long resident in Spain. This drawing was made during Cooke’s time in Malaga, and shows a residential estate in the nearby village of Torremolinos. At this time Torremolinos was beautiful, simple and unspoilt. It was only with the arrival of Sir George Langworthy, who took up residence in Torremolinos in the late 19th century that Torremolinos’ reputation as a tourist site really began. He bought Santa Clara castle and in 1930 converted it into a residential hotel, thus founding the first tourist establishment not only in Torremolinos but practically on the entire Costa del Sol. By contrast, Cooke shows the simplicity of the village, with its quiet main street culminating in the imposing gateway of a dominant villa.