‘Thou hast the sunset’s glow, Rome, for thy dower, Flushing the cypress tree, Temple and tower’

Details

EDWARD WILLIAM COOKE, R.A. (1811-1880)
‘Thou hast the sunset’s glow, Rome, for thy dower, Flushing the cypress tree, Temple and tower’
signed and dated 'E.W. Cooke 1849' (lower right)
oil on canvas
18 x 36 in. (45.7 x 91.5 cm.)

Provenance

Bought from the artist by Sigmund Rücker (d. 1875) (150 gns), and by descent to
Miss Harriet Rucker, Forest Lodge, Putney (†); Christie's, London, 18 March 1932, lot 34, as 'Rome from the Tiber' (15 gns to Illingworth).
Lady Illingworth (†); Christie's, London, 30 November 1990, lot 40, where purchased for the present collection.

Literature

Athenaeum, no. 1126, 26 May 1849, p. 548.
Illustrated London News, 26 May 1849, p. 347.
Art Journal, 1849, p. 168.
J. Munday, Edward William Cooke 1811-1880, R.A., F.R.S., F.S.A. F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.G.S.: A Man of his Time, Woodbridge, 1996, pp. 147-148, 343, cat. 49⁄1, illustrated col. pl. 94.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1849, no. 153.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Amelia Walker Director, Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections

awalker@christies.com +44 20 7389 2085

Lot Essay

Cooke visited Rome at Christmas 1845 during his fifteen-month tour of Italy, during which he made copious sketches. By 29 December he was engaged on a sketch of 'Rome - Bridge and Castle of St Angelo; St Peter's, Hospital of Spiriti Santo, etc., the Janiculum Hill in the Distance', almost certainly the preliminary sketch for this picture. He later worked these sketches up in his studio in Barnes into larger scale paintings for sale. Cooke started exhibiting Italian, mostly Venetian, subjects at the R.A. in 1847 and this is the only painting of Rome that he exhibited.
Contemporary reviewers stressed the atmospheric quality of the painting. For instance the critic in the Illustrated London News praised it as 'A long narrow view of Rome at sunset; wonderful for truth and beauty', and the Art Journal declared it 'the best' of the artist's Italian subjects.

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