Peter Coker, R.A. 1926-2004

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Description

Peter Coker, R.A.
Cliffs near Etretat
signed; also signed on the stretcher and inscribed with title on the overlap
oil on canvas
91.5 122cm., 36 by 48in.

Provenance

Zwemmer Gallery
Derek Hill
His Estate Sale, Sotheby's, London, 3rd July 2002, lot 65

Exhibited

Zwemmer Gallery, London, Paintings by Peter Coker, 10^th – 31^st January 1956, no.13.

Literature

David Wootton, Peter Coker R.A.: Catalogue Raisonné, Chris Beetles Ltd, London, 2002, no.36, pp.50-51 & 118, illustrated in colour p..51.

Catalogue Note

There is a signed oil sketch of figures on the reverse.

From Easter 1955 onwards, Coker began to travel in France outside Paris and visited both Barbizon and Etretat, on the Normandy coast. The sweeping, dramatic coastline with its towering cliffs provided ample subject matter and at least three major oils were produced as a result of this first trip, along with others from subsequent visits.

Courbet had painted at Etretat in 1869, and indeed Coker’s Cliff at Etretat (Coll. Sheffield City Art Gallery), from the same group as the present painting, takes the same viewpoint as the earlier master’s Cliff at Etretat after the Storm (Coll. Musee d’Orsay, Paris). This conscious association with a realist landscape tradition was noted by many contemporary critics, and although the attentions of John Berger associated Coker with the social realist grouping of the ‘Beaux Arts Quartet’ in the late 1950s, marked a distinctive part of his oeuvre which he would maintain throughout his life.