Harry Brooker - A Critical Moment (A House of Cards)

Price Realized £32,265

signed and dated 'Harry. Brooker./1889' (lower right)
oil on canvas
27¾ x 36 in. (70.5 x 91.5 cm.)

Harry Brooker was a domestic genre painter in the tradition of artists such as Thomas Webster, F.D. Hardy both members of the Cranbrook Colony. His paintings of interior scenes reveal the warmth and humour of Victorian domestic life, and he is particularly known for his senstive and charming depictions of children. He was from an artistic family and his uncle Charles Hunt is represented in this sale. When first married, he lived in Southport, touring Wales as a private art tutor and exhibiting three works at the Royal Manchester Institution. He later moved back to London and exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street.