John Marion Crook
American, 1857-1924
- Names
Crook, John Marion
John Marion Crook
- Born
Illinois 1857
- Active
- Died
Portland 1924
- Occupation or Type
painter
watercolorist
Northwest artist
Oregon artist
- Bio
John Crook taught art privately in Chicago for ten years before moving to Portland, where he continued to teach and exhibit. He became treasurer of the early Society of Oregon Artists.
His specialty was atmospheric mist, fog, and the opalescent hues of hazy mornings and late afternoons. Living the last fifteen years of his life on the coast near Astoria, he had many opportunities to observe and refine this technique. Crook's work was recognized as an outstanding development in watercolor as it applied to the interpretation of scenic beauty. The Pacific Art League sponsored exhibitions of his work in Portland and Seattle. In 1925, he was featured posthumously in a national exhibition entitled Painters of the Pacific Northwest and in 1929 in a posthumous show at the Oakland Art Gallery.
Artist biography reproduced with permission from the authors, Oregon Painters: the First Hundred Years (1859-1959), Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit.
- Gender
Male
