The Nuneham Picnic Party

This drawing comes from an album owned by Elizabeth and James Wyatt, children of James Wyatt, art dealer and later Mayor of Oxford. The album also contained a finished watercolour of the picnic party and a poem describing the events, together with other drawings by Cooke and by members of his family and friends. The drawings in the album date from the early 1830s to the late 1840s, and Cooke's diary entry for 2 August 1835 records that he 'gave Miss W. the sketch of Nuneham Party'.
Nuneham was a popular picnic location, and The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales noted in 1870 that the Estate contained ‘beautiful gardens, partly planned by the poet Mason’ and were ‘a favourite resort of picnic parties.’ Walpole was quoted as saying 'Nuneham is not superb, but so calm, riant, and comfortable, so live-at-able, one wakes in a morning on such a whole picture of beauty.' Cooke himself wrote in his diary on 31 July 1835, 'started with all our family & Mr. Wyatt’s to the river & met on board the house boat... about 25 in all and we had a delightful voyage to Nuneham. Some went first in the cutter and the rest followed after lunch. I made a sketch of the party amusing themselves in various ways!!! Then dined capitally and danced under the trees till tea time. Some of the gents bathed and we danced again till 8.'