03 Apr 2014
The Peacock and the Crane, by Edward William Cooke (aged 4), 1815, National Maritime Museum, PAE6484
The collection is enchanting and in the earlier drawings his work is no different to that of any other four year old with adults in enlarged hats and depictions of cats and elephants.
My favourite drawing is one that really reflects his surroundings – the printing press. As the son of an engraver Edward would have spent much of his childhood in the presence of such a piece of equipment and the company of artists that allowed him to develop his skill into the established painter.
A rolling press, by Edward William Cooke (aged 10), 20 April 1821, National Maritime Museum, PAE6605
Edward William Cooke (1811-1880) was a marine painter whose successful career was matched by a prolific output. Raised in an artistic family, he showed a precocious talent, as can be seen from the remarkable collection of early drawings that have come to us.
His earliest drawings are very touching, and one is able, leafing through the albums, to see his progress, how his hand became more assured, precise and his style more personal. He is also an acute observer of the world around him.
Sketch of an old man and a woman, by Edward William Cooke (aged 6), 1817, National Maritime Museum, PAE6524
He was trained by his father, the engraver George Cooke (1781-1834), and some touching letters interspersed among the drawings show how the hard-working pupil was trying to impress his teacher: 'My Dear Father', he writes in 1820, 'If I write a very good copy and do another sum, may I model toms [sic] ear for thomas boys [sic]'.
Two years later, he writes again: 'As I have Drawn a good many of your curiosities, may I now do what you so long promised me, that is, may I sketch them in a manner superlatively well cribbly and accurate'.
Like most artists, Cooke learnt by copying: many of his drawings reproduce the work of earlier artists, which he would probably have known from prints. He (or his father, who may have chosen his early models) seemed to have had a fondness for Dutch pastoral landscapes and animal subjects: several of his drawings are inspired by Nicolaes Berghem [Berchem], Paul Potter or Karel Dujardin.
Sheet of sketches of animals, by Edward William Cooke (aged 7), 1817, National Maritime Museum, PAE6546 to 6552
Sheet of studies of animal heads after Berghem, by Edward William Cooke (aged 8), 1819, National Maritime Museum, PAE6559
As Cooke’s draftsmanship improved, he went from copying ‘flat art’ to copying sculpture – and the usual model for that being the antique (several of the sketches are evidently taken from busts and reliefs in the British Museum). But the portraits he made of people around him, such as the profile of Mrs Eglinton, or the studies of infants’ hands and feet (possibly those of one of his younger sisters).
Mrs Eglinton whilst working, by Edward William Cooke (aged 11), 10 September 1822, National Maritime Museum, PAE6619
He also had a sense of humour, and among more serious, academic drawings can be found caricatures, droll characters and genre scenes.
The devil on horseback, by Edward William Cooke (aged 10), 31 October 1821, National Maritime Museum, PAE6496
Sheet of studies, by Edward William Cooke (aged 11), 1822, National Maritime Museum, PAE6632-PAE6637
Small sheet of studies, by Edward William Cooke (aged 11), 19-22 Nov 1822, National Maritime Museum, PAE6616
Interestingly for an artist who made his fame as a marine painter, there are remarkably few drawings of ships, boats and coastal scenes among the childhood albums.
Sheet of Studies, by Edward William Cooke (aged 11), 1822, National Maritime Museum, PAE6638-PAE6641
By the time he reached adolescence, Cooke had little to envy in the draughtsmanship of his elders.
Man with his hands tied behind his back, by Edward William Cooke (aged 15), 1826, National Maritime Museum, PAE6694
In terms of painting, he famously benefited from the advice of his father’s associates, David Roberts and Clarkson Stanfield, making sketches for the latter in 1826. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1835, aged 24. As he reached artistic maturity, Cooke soon came to be considered one of the principal followers of Stanfield, then the foremost marine painter in England. (The reputation of doyen of marine painting fell on his shoulders at Stanfield’s death).
These delightful drawings and sketches are not the only treasures the Museum holds from this artist: there are many more (Cooke was an inveterate traveler and drew constantly on his journeys), as well as paintings, making the National Maritime Museum the principal repository for this fascinating artist’s work. Many of the drawings can be seen at the Caird Library by ordering the objects through Collections Online.