Peter Coker RA

by David Wootton

Peter Coker was born in London in 1926. He first studied art at St. Martin's School of Art while working at Odhams Press (1941-1943), a leading publisher of instruction manuals and children's books, and returned as a full-time student (1947-1950) after serving in the Second World War. Coker's essential role as a landscape painter originated in a trip to Paris in 1950; by the middle of that decade he was an established landscapist in the French manner. Peter Coker RA features a comprehensive biography of this remarkable artist and provides a catalogue raisonn, of major oils, watercolours and etchings. Also included are lists of exhibitions and sketchbooks, an inventory of public collections containing works by Peter Coker and a select bibliography.

180 pages, Hardcover

First published July 5, 1999

About the author

MA, PhD (Cantab), FRHistS

David Wootton is Anniversary Professor of History. He works on the intellectual and cultural history of the English speaking countries, Italy, and France, 1500-1800. He is currently writing a book entitled Power, Pleasure and Profit based on his Carlyle Lectures at the University of Oxford in 2014. His most recent book is The Invention of Science, published by Allen Lane.

In 2016 he will give the annual Besterman Lecture at the University of Oxford.

He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge, and has held positions in history and politics at four British and four Canadian universities, and visiting postions in the US, before coming to York.