Jean Cooke facts for kids

Jean Esme Oregon Cooke (1927–2008) was a talented English painter. She created beautiful still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and figures. Jean Cooke was also a teacher at the Royal Academy of Arts, a famous art school.

Her paintings were often shown at the Royal Academy's summer exhibitions. Important places like Lincoln College and St Hilda's College, Oxford asked her to paint portraits. Her artwork can be found in major collections, including the National Gallery and the Tate. Early in her career, she sometimes signed her paintings as Jean Bratby, using her husband's last name.

Jean Cooke's Early Life

Jean Esme Oregon Cooke was born on February 18, 1927, in South London. Her father, Arthur Oregon Cooke, owned a shop in Blackheath, London. He sold hardware and groceries there.

Jean spent a lot of time in her father's shop when she was very young. Her mother did not think school was very important. So, Jean did not start school until she was about six and a half years old. Her mother was also artistic. She would mix paints to create "beautiful colours" for their home walls. As a child, Jean loved to draw, paint, and make figures from plasticine. She went to Blackheath High School.

Becoming an Artist

Jean Cooke started studying art in 1943. She went to the Central School of Arts and Crafts. There, she learned life drawing and textile design until 1945. After that, she studied sculpture at Goldsmiths College. She also learned pottery at Camberwell College of Arts.

Jean wanted to become a teacher. She took a teaching course at Goldsmiths and finished it in 1950. At first, she was most interested in sculpture. Clay was free at college, but oil paints were expensive. One of her sculptures even won a prize!

After a biking accident, she hurt her thumb. This made it hard to sculpt, so she focused on pottery. In 1950, she opened her own pottery workshop in Sussex.

Marriage and New Focus

Jean met John Bratby, a painter from the Royal College of Art. They started dating and got married in April 1953. After marrying, she joined the Royal College's postgraduate program. Jean's interest in painting grew stronger. She learned from famous artists like Ruskin Spear and Carel Weight.

In 1964, Jean had her first solo art show. It was at the Leicester Galleries. People started to notice her work. Collectors like Bethel Solomons and Brinsley Ford bought her paintings.

Her husband, John Bratby, sometimes found it hard that Jean was getting so much attention for her art. This made their relationship difficult. He sometimes interfered with her paintings or limited her painting time. Despite these challenges, John Bratby was also said to have inspired her art.

Jean Cooke's Career

In 1964, Jean Cooke began teaching painting at the Royal College. The next year, the Royal Academy of Arts made her an associate member. In 1972, she became a full member. She taught at the college until 1974.

Every summer, she showed her paintings at the Royal Academy exhibition. Her art often featured the beautiful places around her homes. She painted seascapes from her cottage and the garden of her large house. She loved painting cherry trees, long grass with buttercups, and doves.

Jean also painted self-portraits and portraits of her husband and others. St Hilda's College, Oxford asked her to paint their principal, Mary Bennett. Lincoln College hired her to paint portraits of Walter Oakeshott and Egon Wellesz. Her paintings showed great feeling and beauty. She used colors in a special, gentle way. She admired the artist Piet Mondrian. Her work has been compared to other famous painters like Gwen John.

Self-Portraits

Jean Cooke made several self-portraits. Some famous ones include Blast Bodicea and Self-Portrait (Tate). Her self-portraits often had a funny side. They were honest and not always trying to make her look perfect. She said she was always "searching for something" new in them.

She painted Blast Bodicea because her husband, John Bratby, asked her to. He even gave her a heavy brass fireman's helmet to wear in the painting! It was hard to paint with the helmet on, but you can still see faint traces of it in the artwork.

Jean and John Bratby had a complicated relationship. They divorced in 1977. They had one daughter, Wendy, and three sons, Dayan, David, and Jason. All their children were artistic. The family lived in two homes: a seaside cottage at Birling Gap and a large house with a garden.

From 1974 to 1994, Jean held "open studios" for the Greenwich Festival. This meant people could visit her studio and see her work. Her paintings are in important collections like the National Gallery and the Tate.

Later Years and Legacy

In 2003, Jean Cooke's house caught fire. Many of her paintings were lost, and the house was destroyed. She moved to a flat and kept painting.

She passed away on August 6, 2008, at her cottage in Birling Gap. She was looking out at the sea from her window. She died from pneumonia.

After her death, writer Andrew Lambirth described her art. He said Jean Cooke was a painter with "wit and subtlety." He praised her unique use of color in landscapes and still lifes. He felt her best work showed the natural world, like cliffs, the sea, and flowers.

Her friend, playwright Nell Dunn, said Jean had "a crazy sense of humour." She saw herself as a funny person in a funny world. For Jean, the only truly serious thing was painting.

Professional Art Groups

Jean Cooke became a full member of the Royal Academy in 1972. Her artwork was shown every year in their Summer Exhibition for many years. She was on the Royal Academy's Council several times. She also helped choose which artworks would be shown in the exhibitions in 1993 and 1994.

From 1984 to 1986, Jean was a governor at the Central School of Art and Design. She also served on the board of the Blackheath School of Art from 1986 to 1988. She was a member of the Friends of Woodlands Art Gallery.

Selected Works by Jean Cooke

• Birth of Icarus, 1998, Piano Nobile Fine Paintings
• Blast Boadicea, oil on canvas, 1960, Royal Academy of Arts, London
• Dream Dream, 2008
• Egon Joseph Wellesz (1885-1974), Lincoln College, University of Oxford
• Grassland, Government Art Collection
• Jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris (I never cry and I never laugh), oil on canvas, c. 1972, Royal Academy of Arts, London
• John Bratby (1928-1992), Royal Academy of Arts
• John Bratby (1928-1992), Royal College of Art
• Lily, Lily on the Brow, Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council
• Mad Self Portrait, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
• Mary Bennett, Principal (1965-1980) St Hilda's College, University of Oxford
• Richard Webb, Baroque Cellist, c.1982, Private collection.
• Not Waving, Just Painting, Usher Gallery, The Collection: Art & Archaeology in Lincolnshire
• Portrait of a Boy, Kirklees Museums and Galleries
• Self-Portrait, Tate, 1958
• Sir Walter Oakeshott (1903-1987), Lincoln College, University of Oxford
• The greenhouse, oil on board, 1955
• The Italian Straw Hat, London Borough of Camden
• The yellow cliff, oil on canvas, 1974
• Through the Looking Glass, 1960, Royal Academy of Arts
• Union Wharf, Government Art Collection
• Young girl with parasol, oil on board

Exhibitions

Jean Cooke's work was shown in many exhibitions, including:

• 1956 - Her first group exhibitions
• 1963 - Her first solo exhibition at the Establishment Club in London
• 1964 - Solo exhibition at the Leicester Galleries
• 1965 - Bear Lane Gallery in Oxford
• 1965 - Moyan Gallery, Manchester
• 1971 - New Grafton Gallery, London
• 1974 - Group exhibitions at Agnews
• 1976 - Dulwich Picture Gallery
• 1976 - "British Painting 1952 to 1977" at the Royal Academy
• 1979 - Tate Gallery
• 1980 - Norwich Gallery
• 1990 - Sir Hugh Casson Room for Friends at the Royal Academy of Arts
• 1996 - "In The Looking Glass" at the Usher Gallery, Lincoln. This show featured self-portraits by women artists, including Jean Cooke.