Peter Brook (December 1927 – 25 November 2009)[2][3] was an English artist best known for his landscape paintings. He was born in the Pennine village of Scholes, in West Yorkshire,[2] and much of his work features Pennine landscapes, leading to his nickname of The Pennine Landscape Painter, but he is much more than a regional painter.[4]
Brook’s parents were of farming stock, but his father left their small dairy farm to become an insurance agent in South Yorkshire.[2] Brook was educated at Barnsley Grammar School before going on to train as a teacher at Goldsmiths College in London, where he began to develop his interest in art.[5] After finishing his teacher training he served two years of National Service with the RAF as an accounts clerk, before returning to Yorkshire.[6] He then became a teacher, first in a small secondary modern school in Rastrick, near Brighouse and then at Sowerby Bridge Grammar School, where he taught art.[5]
Brook first exhibited at the Wakefield City Art Gallery in 1960. He became a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1962.[7] His growing reputation persuaded Agnew’s Gallery in London to offer him a contract, which allowed him to become a full-time-painter;[8] his first one-man exhibition was held at Agnew’s in 1969.[7]
As at 2024 the record auction price for a painting by Peter Brook is £12,500,[9] for Calling for a Brew (with More Snow Coming), sold at Christie’s South Kensington in 2013.[10]
Personal life
Brook married Molly, a girl he had known since his school days, in 1950,[6] and together they had two daughters: Alison and Katherine.[3]
