Clarence Chatham Cook (September 8, 1828 – June 2, 1900) was a 19th-century American author and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogu ...

. Born in

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester (colloquially referred to as Dot) is a Boston neighborhood comprising more than in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester ...

, Cook graduated from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1849 and worked as a teacher. Between 1863 and 1869, Cook wrote a series of articles about American art for

The New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the dom ...

. In 1869, he moved to France and was the Parisian correspondent for The New York Tribune until the onset of the Franco-Prussian War. Cook was known for his expertise in archeology and antiquities and was instrumental in the criticism of the collection of General di Cesnola. In the mid-1850s Cook began to read works by

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

and associated with a group of American artists, writers, and architects who followed Ruskin's thinking. Through this group he became aware of the British

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Jame ...

. In 1863, with

Clarence King Clarence Rivers King (January 6, 1842 – December 24, 1901) was an American geologist, mountaineer and author. He was the first director of the United States Geological Survey from 1879 to 1881. Nominated by Republican President Rutherford B. H ...

and

John William Hill John William Hill or often J.W. Hill (January 13, 1812 – September 24, 1879) was a British-born American artist working in watercolor, gouache, lithography, and engraving. Hill's work focused primarily upon natural subjects including landsc ...

he helped to found the

Society for the Advancement of Truth in Art The American Pre-Raphaelites was a movement of landscape painters in the United States during the mid-19th century. It was named for its connection to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and for the influence of John Ruskin on its members. Painter ...

, an American group, similar to the Pre-Raphaelites, who published a journal called ''The New Path.'' In 1869 Cook wrote ''A Description of the New York Central Park''. In 1877, articles on home furnishings that Cook had written for

Scribner's Monthly ''Scribner's Monthly: An Illustrated Magazine for the People'' was an illustrated American literary periodical published from 1870 until 1881. Following a change in ownership in 1881 of the company that had produced it, the magazine was relaunch ...

were published as a book entitled ''The House Beautiful''. In 1879, Cook served as editor for Wilhelm Lübke's ''History of Art''. Cook died at his home in

Fishkill Landing Beacon is a city located in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The 2020 census placed the city total population at 13,769. Beacon is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, New York Metropolitan Statistical Area as wel ...

, New York, from complications of Bright's Disease. He was 71.

Family

On October 26, 1852, Cook married Louisa DeWindt Whittemore, daughter of John P. DeWindt and Caroline A. Smith and widow of Samuel Whittemore Jr. They had a daughter, Clara, who died at one year 5 months old (February 4, 1853 – July 25, 1854). Louisa was a granddaughter of William Stephens Smith and Abigail "Nabby" Adams Smith and great-granddaughter of President

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

and

Abigail Adams Abigail Adams ( ''née'' Smith; November 22, [ O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She was a founder of the United States, a ...

References

*Cook, Clarence. ''The House Beautiful: An Unabridged Reprint of the Classic Victorian Stylebook''. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. *Graff, M. M. ''The Men Who Made Central Park''. New York: Greensward Foundation, 1982. *Morris, Lloyd R. ''Incredible New York; High Life and Low Life of the Last Hundred Years''. New York: Random House, 1951. *"Clarence Cook Dead" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. June 3, 1900

External links

The Greensward Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Clarence 1828 births 1900 deaths American art critics Harvard University alumni New-York Tribune personnel American expatriates in France 19th-century American journalists American male journalists People from Dorchester, Massachusetts 19th-century American male writers

Family

See also

References

External links