William Brooker (1918 - 1983)

Oil on canvas
23 x 30.5 cm
Signed, titled and dated verso

Provenance
Catalina Montesinos de Brooker


As principal of Wimbledon School of Art, a post he held from 1969-1981, William Brooker was considered by many to be one of the foremost educationists of his generation. Howard Hodgkin once described him as “the only real teacher I ever had….he made one feel that painting was a very important occupation”.

Green Box with Plastic Cups was painted in 1979 and presents us with a work that Brooker was well known for – still lifes within the framework of a domestic interior. Throughout the 60s and 70s Brooker moved away from realism and produced paintings which culminated in dramatic minimalist images, created through his use of frontal lighting and muted palette.

Green Box with Plastic Cups was one of Brooker’s late works looking back at an earlier period with its strong use of pictorial realism and his lifelong preoccupation with the still life.

From the 1950s Brooker exhibited regularly at Arthur Tooth & Son and Agnew’s.