Cock Van Gent Art

Cock Van Gent was born in Holland in 1925 and began to paint at the age of 10. From 1940–45, she studied at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK), and concurrently learned stained glass making in Maastricht. In 1946, she came to the United States, and with encouragement from Alfred Stieglitz, made her way around the country painting impressions. She did as many as three watercolors a day, supplementing this work with continuous drawing and sketching. In 1947, Gent was given her first solo show at the Seattle Art Museum and during the same year, exhibited at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. In 1949, she became a permanent resident of this country and subsequently worked on the West Coast. She then traveled to Inagua, the southernmost district of the Bahama Islands and Europe. In 1952, Gent received a Catherwood Foundation grant for a year of painting in Mexico. She found the country and the people so much to her liking that she remained there until 1956.