The wealthy merchant and art collector Sir Francis Cook, 1st Baronet, owned P92B An Italian Landscape, Morning (The Temple of Venus at Baiae) , Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection and probably P163 Meleager and Atalanta, Tate, London. About 1860 Cook acquired Doughty House in Richmond Hill, Surrey, and began to assemble one of the most important collections of pictures formed in England during this period. the 100 paintings which constituted the nucleus of his collection were purchased in 1860 from John Charles Robinson, who provided him with many further acquisitions. Cook acquired works from all the major schools of European painting, though relatively few British paintings. However, he owned works by Gainsborough, Hogarth, and Turner as well as Wilson. He was created a baronet in 1886 and died at Doughty House on 17 February 1901. The main portion of his estate went to his elder son, Frederick, who succeeded to the baronetcy but part of his art collection was inherited by his younger son, Wyndham Francis.
