Peter Cook

Born in New York in 1915, Peter Cook moved as a boy to Kingston, New Jersey. He studied architecture at Princeton, where he met and began his studies with John Folinsbee, a leading member of the New Hope art colony.After graduating in 1937 with a degree in architecture Cook went on to study at the National Academy of Design in New York under Gifford Beal and Leon Kroll, and at the Art Students League with Arthur Lee. Cook was awarded a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship in 1939; and when World War II cut short his European tour, he returned to study in New York. After a winter teaching in Clearwater, Florida, he moved back to New Jersey. Beginning in 1950 Cook spent his summers in Montsweag, near Wiscasset, Maine, where he shared a studio with John Folinsbee.

Cook was a member of the Century Association and the National Academy. He won many awards for his figure, landscape and portrait paintings. He taught art classes in New York, New Hope and Princeton. Cook had one-man shows in Boston, Richmond, Palm Beach, Chattanooga, Minneapolis and Princeton. A retrospective of his work was exhibited at the Century Association in New York in 1992. Cook’s paintings are held in the collections of Princeton, Bradley, Rutgers and Temple Universities, the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Navy.