Woman in Red Plaid Jacket is a portrait Cook painted of one of his students, whom the museum has identified as Mary Jane Allen-Lock, while she attended Converse College between 1959 and 1963. 

An exhibition label affixed to the painting’s back stretcher, presumably by Cook himself, notes that the work is “not for sale” but that “prices are available upon inquiry”. The small label is handwritten with stick-and-ink in a finely-crafted, delicate calligraphic script, reminiscent of the care with which small details, such as the sitter’s eyebrows, have been  rendered in the painting itself. The handwritten exhibition label and  contradictory information about the work’s availability for purchase seem to indicate that the work was one which Cook was either especially proud of, or which held some sentimental value for him. 

Cook was known to hand-carve frames for his work, and although not pictured here, this  piece’s mount is no exception. Taken together, al l these seemingly  insignificant details reveal the careful, thorough, and considered character of Cook himself.