William Henry Brooke

William Henry Brooke (1772–1860) was a British artist and illustrator.

Portrait of Robert Owen, now in the National Portrait Gallery.

Life

He was the son of the painter Henry Brooke and a nephew of Henry Brooke, the author of A Fool of Quality. He was a pupil of Samuel Drummond, and worked as a portrait painter.^[1][2]

The anti-royal menagerie, from The Satirist, 1812. Print from the collection of the British Museum.

He exhibited portraits and figure subjects at the Royal Academy occasionally between 1810 and 1826, but is best known by his illustrations to books. He died at Chichester in 1860.

Works

As an illustrator, Brooke was influenced by Thomas Stothard, a friend.^[1] He contributed to Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies, Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler in the edition by John Major, Thomas Keightley's Mythology, and other works.^[2]