Ray Crooke AM (1922–2015) was one of Australia’s most celebrated romantic realist landscape painters, born in Melbourne. After serving in WWII across northern Australia, including Cape York and Thursday Island Crooke trained at Swinburne Technical College and began exhibiting in 1959, quickly gaining acclaim for his vivid depictions of tropical life.

His Brown Landscape, Cape York typifies Crooke's mature style: serene, contemplative scenes drenched in the soft, warm light of the tropics, rendered in rich tonal harmony that echoes French post-Impressionist influence, notably Paul Gauguin.

Winner of the 1969 Archibald Prize, Crooke’s works are held in all major Australian galleries, the Vatican Museum, and international institutions. Honoured with the Order of Australia (1993) and a traveling retrospective, North of Capricorn (1997–99), he redefined how Australians visualize their northern landscapes, inviting us into a slower view of nature.

Today, Crooke's tranquil yet vivid landscapes remain beloved and widely represented across major state galleries, the Vatican Museum, and private collections, his work offering an enduring, poetic window into Australia’s far north.