JEAN COOKE RA (1927-2008)

Jean Cooke (1927-2008), The Sun Hat, 1960. Courtesy of Jerwood Collection © The Estate of Jean Cooke

The Sun Hat , 1960

oil on canvas
121.9 x 91.4 cm

Jean Cooke studied at the Central School of Art, Goldsmiths College and the Royal College of Art in London under Carel Weight and Ruskin Spear. In 1953 she married the painter John Bratby and used his name until the marriage was dissolved in the late 1970s. She taught at the Royal College as a lecturer in painting from 1964 to 1974 and was elected as associate of the Royal Academy in 1965 and a full Academician in 1972. She shared her time between her home in Blackheath and a fisherman's cottage in Birling Gap, East Sussex. Cooke was an accomplished colourist and draughtsman; her intimate portraits, still-lifes and landscapes are dominated by a sense of familiarity and poetic poignancy.

Text source: Benezit Dictionary of Artists

Provenance
The Artist's Estate
With Piano Nobile, London, 2007
Private Collection, London
Piano Nobile, London, where purchased 2023

Exhibited
Settle, Linton Court Gallery, Jean Cooke RA, 22 June - 23 July 1991, cat. no. 15
London, Piano Nobile, Jean Cooke: a reputation reassessed, 2007, cat. no. 14
London, Piano Nobile, A Celebration of Portraiture, 5 June - 31 July 2023. 

Lara Wardle