Edward William Cooke RA (1811-1880) Strasbourg Cathedral and statue of Gutenburg

Edward William Cooke was meticulous at documenting his sketching trips in the UK and abroad. We are fortunate to have extensive details of his trips and we know therefore that Cooke was in Strasbourg on at least six different occasions on 11 July 1840, 25 July 1845, 19 August 1852, 1 December 1853, 12 September 1857 and 28 September 1864. [1] These are the only known drawings of Strasbourg by the artist that we are aware of.
 
The first drawing on the left depicts Strasbourg Cathedral which was the tallest building in the world at 142 metres during the time of Cooke's trips. The artist always enjoyed depicting church architecture and would have been impressed by this magnificent Rayonnant Gothic Cathedral. The second drawing on the right depicts the statue of Johannes Gutenberg by David d'Angers which was installed on Place Gutenberg. He was the inventor of the printing press and lived in Strasbourg for a lot of his life.
 
The two drawings come directly from the studio of Cooke and have been in the same collection since this time through descent. We will be adding other works by Cooke from this collection including an important view of Rome that was clearly used for his Royal Academy exhibition piece of the city.
 
Medium: pencil on paper from Cooke's sketchbook, picture on left is inscribed u.l. 'Strasbourg Cathedral', 16.5 x 12cm, picture on right is inscribed at bottom 'Statue of Gutenburg, Strasbourg', 16.3 x 11.3cm. Both are mounted together measuring 27.1 x 36.5cm.
 
Literature:
 
[1] John Munday. E.W. Cooke 1811-1880: A man of his time, London: 1996. See Appendix 4 pp. 364-374.
 
Provenance: Studio of the artist, thence by descent to the previous owner.
 
Condition report: general time staining and light scattered foxing.