Marmaduke Cradock

Marmaduke Cradock (1660 – 24 March 1716) was an English painter of birds and other animals. Some older sources give his first name as Luke but this may be in error. Self taught, he produced art works that were rarely signed.

Life

Cradock was an English painter, noted for his depictions of birds, dead game, and other animals. He was born in Somerton, Somerset and moved to London, where he served an apprenticeship to a house-painter. He was, however, self-taught as an artist,

Sketches in the collection of the British Museum indicate that he based at least some of the birds in his paintings on drawings from life. He tended to paint domestic birds and common wild species, rather than the exotic varieties favoured by some other artists. It is only one of three known signed works by him. Soon afterwards some of his works were sold at three or four times the price he had received for them in his lifetime.