attributed to Edward Francis Rook, Jr.

American (1870-1960)

Edward Francis Rook, Jr., was born in New York City in 1870. He was a student of Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian. He exhibited at the Cincinnati Art Museum and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he was presented with the Temple Gold Medal for Deserted Street, Moonlight, the first of many awards. Rook visited Old Lyme in October of 1903 when Childe Hassam was also there, and two years later moved to Old Lyme. He was one of the relatively young painters to come to Old Lyme, along with Gifford Beal, William Chadwick, and Robert Nisbet, on the wave of impressionism, initiated there by Hassam and Metcalf. Rook spent some of his summers on Monhegan Island. He was represented by Macbeth and Grand Central Art Galleries.