Life

He entered his father's firm Cook, Son & Co.

Cook, Son & Co.

Cook, Son & Co. was one of the largest English wholesale clothing traders and drapers of the late 19th century and early 20th century.The firm was created by William Cook in 1819. In 1822 he went into partnership with his brother James and in 1825 with Mr Gladstones. The firm moved to St Paul's...

, which traded finished wool, cotton, linen and silk, after travels in Europe and the Near East, and from 1869 was its head, rising to one of Britain's three richest men. In 1849 he bought Doughty House

Doughty House

Doughty House was a country house on Richmond Hill in Surrey, England. It was the residence of the Cook Baronets. It was bought in 1849 by the first baronet. A was added in 1885 for the family art collection...

 and in 1855 the quinta of Monserrate in Sintra

Sintra

Sintra is a town within the municipality of Sintra in the Grande Lisboa subregion of Portugal. Owing to its 19th century Romantic architecture and landscapes, becoming a major tourist centre, visited by many day-trippers who travel from the urbanized suburbs and capital of Lisbon.In addition to...

, Portugal, where he built Monserrate Palace

Monserrate Palace

The Monserrate Palace is an exotic palatial villa located near Sintra, Portugal, the traditional summer resort of the Portuguese court. It was built in 1858 for Sir Francis Cook, an English baronet created visconde de Monserrate by King Luís. Monserrate turned to an English architect, James...

, a Moorish-style palace and became Visconde de Monserrate. He began to collect classical sculpture in the late 1850s, though he only collected his first major paintings in 1868, at which date Sir John Charles Robinson (1824–1913), former V&A curator, became his advisor. He had 510 major works by 1876 and in 1885 added a Long Gallery to Doughty House to accommodate the growing collection, making this gallery open to scholars.

In 1885 he married for the second time to the American feminist stockbroker and former clairvoyant Tennessee Claflin and in 1886 he was made the first Cook Baronet. He was succeeded by his son Frederick

Sir Frederick Cook, 2nd Baronet

Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd Baronet was the second holder of the Cook Baronetcy, the head of the family textile-trading company, and a Conservative Party politician.-Life:...

.

Works collected by him

• Hubert van Eyck
  Hubert van Eyck
  Hubert van Eyck was a Flemish painter and older brother of Jan van Eyck. He was probably born in Maaseik, Flanders, now in Belgium....
  
  ’s Three Marys at the Sepulchre (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
  Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
  The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a disastrous 1864 fire...
  
  , Rotterdam)
• Diego Velázquez
  Diego Velázquez
  Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
  
  ’s Old Woman Cooking Eggs
  Old Woman Cooking Eggs
  The Old Woman Cooking Eggs is a genre painting by Diego Velázquez, produced during his Seville period . It is now in the National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh...
  
  (National Gallery of Scotland
  National Gallery of Scotland
  The National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. An elaborate neoclassical edifice, it stands on The Mound, between the two sections of Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens...
  
  , Edinburgh)
• Antonello da Messina
  Antonello da Messina
  Antonello da Messina, properly Antonello di Giovanni di Antonio was an Italian painter from Messina, Sicily, active during the Italian Renaissance...
  
  ’s Christ at the Column (Musée du Louvre
  Louvre
  The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
  
  , Paris)
• François Clouet
  François Clouet
  François Clouet , son of Jean Clouet, was a French Renaissance miniaturist and painter, particularly known for his detailed portraits of the French ruling family.-Historical references:Clouet was born in Tours....
  
  ’s Portrait of a lady (National Gallery of Art
  National Gallery of Art
  The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
  
  , Washington DC)
• Metsu
  Gabriel Metsu
  Gabriël Metsu was a Dutch painter of history paintings, genre works and portraits.- Life :Metsu was the son of the Flemish painter Jacques Metsu , who lived most of his days at Leiden, and Jacomijntje Garniers, his third wife, whom he married in 1625. Jacomijntje was the widow of a painter with...
  
  ’s Woman at her toilet (Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, CA).

External links

• quinta of Monserrate