Ebenezer Wake Cook

Ebenezer Wake Cook (28 December 1843 – 1926), generally referred to as E. Wake Cook, was a watercolour painter. Cook was born at Maldon, Essex, England and came to Melbourne in 1852. At 17 years of age Cook became an assistant to Nicholas Chevalier, who instructed him in painting, wood-engraving and lithography. During 1867 and 1868 Chevalier was commissioned to produce a number of images of New Zealand and Tasmania and Victoria, Australia, by the Duke of Edinburgh. A watercolour of Isle of the Dead in Tasmania was painted by Cook in about 1868. He was one of the original members of the Victorian Academy of Arts in 1870. In 1872 Cook studied under Eugene von Guerard at the National Gallery of Victoria. In that year he won the medal for the best water-colour exhibited at the exhibition of the New South Wales Academy of Art. He was an associate of Tom Roberts, Rupert Bunny and Bertram Mackennal, and for a time worked for the Adelaide Photographic Company.