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Portrait of the actor T.P. Cooke

Maker

(artist)
1789-1863

Title

Date of Production

1826

Medium

graphite on paper

Dimensions

Height: 19.8 cm
Width: 14.9 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3339

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

signatures (names)

Label Text

The British actor Thomas Potter Cooke (1786-1864) is best known for having originated the role of Frankenstein’s monster. Vernet produced this crisp portrait while Cooke was performing the role in Paris in 1826; it served as the design for a lithograph published the same year which would have been purchased by Cooke’s many admirers. He drew Cooke’s left eye with what appears to be two pupils, one overlapping the other, animating the actor’s otherwise still and composed face.

Notes

Lithographs done after this portrait at the V&A and National Portrait Gallery.

Provenance

Mrs Palmer (?); purchased from her by Colnaghi (London), 11 October 1943; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), 19 October 1943 (£12); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Return to Darkness, Musée Rath, Geneva, 02/12/2016-19/03/2017

Special Display - French Portraits, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/06/2013-02/09/2013

Literature

Musée Rath, Geneva, 2 December 2016 - 19 March 2017, Le Retour des Tenebres: L'imaginaire Gothique depuis Frankenstein, Musumeci 2016
ill. on p. 273

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower right, graphite, underlined, signed and dated by the artist: “H Vernet 1826.”. Mount (removed, now missing, recorded in the file): “This Original Pencil Portrait by Horace Vernet of: / Mr. T.P. Cooke, was done by him in Paris, during / the Summer of 1826; while Mr T.P. Cooke, was / acting “The Monster”, at The Porte St. Martin Theatre there. //”.

Collector's mark: none.

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