Edward William Cooke, R.A. 1811-1880

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Edward William Cooke, R.A.
A FISHING PORT, BROECKENHAVEN HARBOUR OF THE ZUIDER ZEE
signed and dated l.r.: E. W. Cooke. 1842.
oil on canvas
75 by 121 cm. ; 29 1/2 by 47 1/2 in.

Provenance

Charles Ainsworth;

George Audley;

Unknown saleroom, 18th March 1932;

Straus;

Christie's, 25th May 1979, lot 50;

O & P Johnson;

London, Owen Edgar Gallery

Exhibited

Royal Academy, 1842, no. 510

Literature

John Munday, Edward William Cooke 1811-1880: A Man of his Time, 1996, pg. 121, no.42/2

Catalogue Note

Cooke painted several impressive marine pictures along the Zuider Zee coast of Holland in the 1850s, this being one of the most dramatic for its strenuous force, as the boatmen struggle against the power of the storm lashing the sea around them. The composition of the timber canal walkway on the right side along which a fisherman hauls his craft, had appeared in several of his Dutch marine pictures, including Zuider Zee Botter Returning to Port (private collection) painted twelve years later than the present picture. Both pictures depict a craft particular to the Zuider Zee region, the botter, a type of shallow-hulled sailing barge.

A particularly favoured spot for Cooke’s Dutch paintings was Medemblik, the Thirteenth Century port of West-Freisland, forty kilometres north of Amsterdam, along the coast formerly called the Zuider Zee (now the Ijselmeer). It is likely that this painting was composed from sketches made at Medemblik and a pencil drawing for this painting is known (Clarges Gallery).