Work
It has rather strangely been said that most of his paintings date from the last six years of his life, from 1753 to 1759. However, his earliest known works are two pictures depicting a burning ship and a harbour scene by moonlight which he signed, inscribed with his age, 17, and thus datable to 1740. Since he was apparently already thought of as a "celebrated painter of sea-pieces" by 1752, when he worked for John Ellis (c.1710–76), he had evidently been producing work for at least 12 years before that date. The mention by Ellis occurs in his Natural History of the Corallines, published in London, 1755. It is arguable that since Ellis only employed him as a botanical draughtsman, he did not fully recognize him as “celebrated” until after 1754. Nevertheless, a good example of earlier work by Brooking is his painting of an engagement between Commodore Walker and a fleet of French ships which occurred on 23 May 1745, and which was already engraved and published by Boydell in 1753. This painting is now in the Greenwich Maritime Museum.
Except for paintings such as this, which record specific historical events, Brooking’s early works are not easy to date more precisely, other than stylistically and by theme, and have not yet been closely examined for their chronological development. His first two pictures can reasonably be said to show some influence of Peter Monamy, but he was already displaying strong signs of a distinctive personal manner. He soon drew away from the native traditions of the marine genre, which included formal ship portraiture, although there are at least two works signed by him, one now in the Maritime Museum at Greenwich, which portray a ship in this convention. There is also a group of paintings and prints, signed or inscribed "Monamy" and datable to the years circa 1745-1750, but whose style is more consistent with Brooking’s. Some of the identical prints occur with attributions by different print dealers to both painters in separate issues.
Brooking’s accuracy and exceptionally careful attention to detail manifest his intimate knowledge of maritime practice and naval architecture, as well as his remarkably close observation of the ocean conditions of wave and wind. Contemporary accounts suggest that he had been “much at sea” and he certainly owned a small yacht. In his early years he was evidently employed in some maritime capacity, possibly in a pilot boat at Gravesend. Some of his presumed later works plainly show the influence of Willem van de Velde the Younger.
Today, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London holds 23 of his oil paintings, all 28 engravings after his works, and 4 drawings bequeathed by the U.S. President, J.F.Kennedy. A plaque to Brooking was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of the City of London at Tokenhouse Yard in October, 2008.
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