Summer Shade, 1935

Muriel Elise Cooke, ( Crooke ) 1901 - 1975, was an English artist who painted in watercolour and oil, she was also an engraver Cooke studied in Paris, France and in her twenties exhibited at the Royall Academy, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Society of Art, the Royal Hibernian Association, the Royal West of England Academy and also in Paris at the Salon des Artistes. She was an animalier and landscape painter as seen in this depiction of a farmyard at the height of summer, her application of light and shade shows a competence of the gradation of light which to some artists is a mystery and remains undeveloped in some cases throughout their career, but not in the case of Muriel Cooke. There is a mastery light and shade which makes the whole picture a pleasure and reinstates Cooke's ability above that of some of her contemporaries. A somewhat underrated artist during her career but this picture displays a command of her talent.