Roman Wine Cart

Tinted litograph signed at lower left. From a drawing by Cooke himself, now preserved at   Royal Academy of Arts.

Edward Cooke arrived in Rome with his sister Laura on December 23rd 1845. Except for a two week excursion to Tivoli, he remained in the city until May the following year. Rome was an unusual destination for a marine painter, and Cooke wrote to his family stating that he was 'taking it coolly' and adding that he had 'intended to paint one or two pictures for the Academy whilst here but it was impossible - 1st because I have been out of spirits and poorly, 2ndly the multitude of objects of intense interest have so completely seized all my thoughts since I left Genoa and the sea, that I seem for a time to have lost all my impressions of marine subjects and effects'. 

Nevertheless, Cooke avidly sketched the city's classical and medieval sites during his stay and these formed the basis for several subsequent oil paintings of Roman scenes.

Many of the drawings were engraved and published in the two editions of Cooke's Leaves from my Sketchbook (1876 and 1877). In the introduction to these publications Cooke wrote, 'Travels in many countries, extending over a period of fifty years, have filled my Sketch-books with several thousand sketches, which have often served to recall to friends pleasant memories of happy days and sunny climes, and excite a wish to visit places alike remarkable for natural beauty and historic interest.'