e.w. cooke 1811-1880

One eminent Victorian for whom a biographical study is long overdue is the marine painter Edward William Cooke R.A., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.G.S., (1811-1880), who, as the letters after his name will indicate, had interests far beyond the coastal views and inshore shipping of Europe which were his main subjects on canvas. He emerges as a gardener and garden designer on a grand scale, a student of geology, a plantsman, botanical illustrator, humorist, antiquarian and collector. Upon his death in 1880, it was said that there was no one to take his place, a verdict that still stands today. Although several exhibitions have been held covering aspects of Cooke’s work, this new book gathers together a more representative collection of paintings and drawings and explores the many-sided character of this fascinating man. He kept a diary, on which this book is largely based, enabling us to see what he was about almost every day of a working life spanning half a century.