William Bernard Cooke (1778 – 2 August 1855), was an English

line engraver Line engraving is a term for engraving, engraved images printed on paper to be used as Old master print, prints or illustrations. The term is mainly used in connection with 18th- or 19th-century commercial illustrations for magazines and books or ...

Life and work

Cooke was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1778. He was the elder brother of George Cooke (1781–1834), and became a pupil of William Angus (1752–1821), the engraver of the "Seats of the Nobility and Gentry in Great Britain and Wales". After the termination of his apprenticeship he obtained employment upon the plates for Brewer's "Beauties of England and Wales", and then undertook the publication of "The Thames" which was completed in 1811, and for which he engraved almost all the plates after Samuel Owen. His most important work was the "Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England", chiefly from drawings by

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...

, which he produced between 1814 and 1826, conjointly with his brother, George Cooke, and for which he executed no less than twenty-two plates, besides many vignettes. He also engraved after Turner "The Source of the Tamar" and "Plymouth", and in 1819 five plates of "Views in Sussex" which were published with explanatory notices by R. R. Reinagle. Besides these he engraved "Storm clearing off", after

Copley Fielding Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding (22 November 1787 – 3 March 1855), commonly called Copley Fielding, was an English painter born in Sowerby, near Halifax, and famous for his watercolour landscapes. At an early age Fielding became a pup ...

, for the Gallery of the

Society of Painters in Watercolours The Royal Watercolour Society is a British institution of painters working in watercolours. The Society is a centre of excellence for water-based media on paper, which allows for a diverse and interesting range of approaches to the medium of wat ...

,' 1833, as well as plates for

Ebenezer Rhodes Ebenezer Rhodes (1762–1839) was an English topographer, publisher, master cutler and artist. He became a prominent historian of Derbyshire. Life Born in Masborough near Rotherham, in 1762, Rhodes was educated at The Dinnington School, befor ...

's "Peak Scenery", 1818,

Peter De Wint Peter De Wint (21 January 1784 – 30 January 1849) was an English landscape painter. A number of his pictures are in the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Collection, Lincoln. He died in London. Biography De Wint wa ...

's "Views in the South of France, chiefly on the Rhone", 1825, Cockburn's "Pompeii", 1827, Stanfield's "Coast Scenery" 1836, Noel Humphreys's "Rome and its surrounding Scenery" 1840, and other works. He likewise published "A new Picture of the Isle of Wight" 1812, and "Twenty-four select Views in Italy" 1833. He was an engraver of considerable ability, and excelled especially in marine views, but the works which he published did not meet with much success. He died at

Camberwell Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...

of heart disease, on 2 August 1855, aged 77.

References

External links

W B Cooke's engravings
(Royal Academy Collections)
Engravings at the NMM
(

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...

, Greenwich, London) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, George English engravers English book publishers (people) 1778 births 1855 deaths