Charles Brooking (1723 - 1759) - A Short Biography
Part 7: Conclusion
In spite of all this talent Brooking’s death left his family dependent on the charity of others. Perhaps he simply did not live long enough after the breakthrough of the Foundling Hospital commission to capitalise on its success. Certainly the chroniclers who looked back on his career at the end of the century seem to class him as an under-appreciated talent who never made it into the top rank of marine artists in his lifetime. Could it have been that Brooking was a little ahead of his time?
Apart from a series of paintings on the ‘Royal Family’ Privateers he did not usually name ships, he did not produce ship portraits and his battle scenes are rare. So some of most useful sources of sales and commissions are missing from his output. Brooking’s priorities lay elsewhere and it was to be his ability to convey atmospheric effects that has subsequently singled him out as one of our most important marine artists. The emphasis on a more naturalistic approach makes him an important link with the Romantic Movement that flourished around the beginning of the next century. The work of Charles Brooking shows an artist looking beyond the limits of documentary painting to attempt to convey the power and beauty of the natural world. Artists like Turner were to go a stage further shedding the careful depiction of ships and waves in favour of elemental magnificence, but in Brooking we can see the genesis of the Romantic ideal.
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: The Early Years
Part 3: From the Corallines to the Foundling Hospital
Part 4: The Breakthrough
Part 5: Brooking the Artist
Part 6: Light and Water
Part 7: Conclusion
"Charles Brooking 1723-1759 & The 18th Century Marine Painters" by David Joel is available from the St. Barbe Museum Book Shop
© St. Barbe Museum & Art Gallery 2001. Copyright notice
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