(c1660 - 1717)
Marmaduke Cradock was born in Somerton, Somerset. He served an apprenticeship to a house painter, before becoming a self-taught artist, painting decorative images of birds and animals in landscape settings. It is thought he taught a little-known bird painter named Coniers. Between 1740 and 1743, five engravings by Joseph Sympson after works by Cradock were published. Paintings in the style of Cradock are often sold in the art market, however only three examples signed by the artist are known. These include ‘Peacocks, Doves, Turkeys, Chickens, and Ducks by a Classical Ruin in a Landscape’ (Yale University, Center for British Art) and ‘A Peacock and other Birds in a Landscape’ (Tate collection). Cradock died in Whitechapel, London, in 1717.
