William Brooker was a 20th Century figurative oil painter of interiors, nides, townscapes and still lifes.
Brooker studied at Croydon School of Art (1936-1939) before serving in the Royal Artillery during the war. In 1947 he turned back to painting, attending the Chelsea School of Art and Goldsmiths College of Art (1948-1949). Between 1949 and 1965 he taught at a number of schools and academies including Bath, Wimbledon, Willesden and Harrow. Brooker had his first solo exhibition in 1955 at Arthur Tooth and Sons, where he continued to exhibit regularly.
In 1965 he was appointed as a senior lecturer at Central School of Arts and Crafts, London and from 1969 until 1981 he was Principal of the Wimbledon School of Art. In 1968 his travels took him to America and Zambia, where he exhibited with William Scott in a show organised by the British Council. He also had solo shows in 1971 in Villiers, Paddington, New South Wales, Australia. He also showed at the Royal Academy, the Leicester Gallery, and Agnew's in London.
Brookers still lifes from the late 1950s are his most distinguished works, drawing from his earlier nudes and townscapes of the Camden Town tradition. His palette is soft and tonal, and his canvases express a concern for shapes and angels with an emphasis on formal composition idiosyncratic of the contemporary milieu.
