The Victoria Art Gallery has acquired a special painting of Simon Crook, a former councillor and the Mayor of Bath in 1778.
Photo © Woolley & Wallis
The painting, which was auctioned by Woolley & Wallis on 5th March, sold for £2,268. It will be added to the gallery’s collection and will go on show to the public.
Crook served on Bath City Council from 1754 to 1791. He was also an apothecary in Abbey Street, Bath and is captured on canvas by the circle of Thomas Gainsborough.
The work would have been commissioned by Crook himself.
In 1763 he was depicted in the satirical print The Knights of Baythe, or the One Headed Corporation.
The painting dates from the same period and an old stamp on the back of the original canvas, dated 1763 was discovered during recent conservation.
1763 was the year Thomas Gainsborough’s death was erroneously reported by The Bath Journal. However, Gainsborough was seriously ill, and he did not work in his studio for the last 3 months of that year.
Simon Crook was a neighbour of Gainsborough, who also lived in Abbey Street from 1760 until 1766, when he moved to The Circus.
During his Bath period, Gainsborough painted several apothecaries, including Thomas Haviland (c.1761), James Haviland (c.1770), and Dr Rice Charleton (c.1764).
