Brooker trained at prominent art schools, including Chelsea and Goldsmiths, before beginning his teaching career at Bath Academy of Art in 1949. At this time the academy was based at Corsham Court, Wiltshire. Brooker’s style was influenced by the tradition of Walter Sickert and the Camden Town School, as well as by the Post-Impressionism of Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. He was also interested in the development of abstract art in Britain, and invited the St Ives abstract painter Terry Frost to teach at Corsham. Among Brooker’s students there was Howard Hodgkin, who remembered him as ‘the only real teacher I ever had’. Chippenham Museum aims to collect specimens and artefacts with local connections, and Corsham Court lies within its collecting area. Brooker’s Studio Interior with Nude now joins the museum as a reflection of the influential role Corsham has played in the development of modern British art.

Provenance

Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd; Private collection; John Nicholson Fine Art auctioneers, 2014; Private colletcion; Jenne Burlingham Fine Art, 2016.