This is Jersey - Art - Sir Francis Cook

Sir Francis Cook (1907-1978)

Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook was born on 21 December 1907. the third and only son of Sir Herbert Francis Cook, a distinguished art critic and a trustee of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery.

He grew up in Richmond alongside the famous Cook collection of old master paintings. He was fascinated by these masterpieces and determined to discover their secrets, devoting his life's work to recreating the media employed by Rubens and Van Dyke and claimed to have rediscovered that used by Rubens, calling it Ruben's jelly. Many of Sir Francis' paintings reflect the style of these artists.

Sir Francis quickly achieved a high reputation as an artist. In 1936 he won a gold medal at the prestigious Bentall's open exhibition and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Academy.

He was a founder member of the Jersey Society of Artists until its dissolution when he was instrumental in founding the Jersey Artists Group, a thriving society which holds regular exhibitions. His overriding ambition was to be recognised as an artist. To this end he bought the Methodist Chapel at Augrès during the 1970s and converted it to house his life's works, naming it the Augrès Fine Art Association.

He died on 12 September 1978 before he could complete the conversion but his widow continued the task and in 1984 donated the property and over 1200 paintings to the Jersey Heritage Trust to be preserved for the public of the island. The property was renamed the Sir Francis Cook Gallery in his memory as a tribute to this generous benefactor.

- abridged from a text by Carolyn Bailey and originally published by the Jersey Heritage Trust in their Jersey Artists series.
Reproduced with kind permission from the Jersey Heritage Trust.
Picture: 'Self Portrait', Oil.