On the fiftieth anniversary of her death, Michael Waldron assesses the work of Cork artist Sylvia Cooke-Collis
Sylvia Cooke-Collis may not be a household name today, or even much recognised outside of certain art-historical and collecting circles, but during her career she exhibited consistently as a mid-20th-century modern artist. Her work has drawn comparisons with the Fauves and Raoul Dufy (1877–1953), while she could count Mainie Jellett (1897–1944), Evie Hone (1894–1955) and Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) among her friends. Now, fifty years since her death, Cooke-Collis’ work seems to possess a vitality and energy that some of her contemporaries lack.
Born in Glanmire, Co Cork, Sylvia Margaret Phillips spent her early childhood at the handsome Clifford House, Castletownroche, but lost her father, Captain Henry Cecil Phillips, at a young age. In 1907, she and her brother, Philip, moved to nearby Annes Grove, when their mother, Hilda Margaret Workman-Macnaghten, married Richard Grove Annesley. Theirs was a blended family and Sylvia’s early years were spent amid the Annesleys’ renowned Robinsonian gardens and the rolling North Cork countryside.
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