Thomas Cooper

Thomas Sidney Cooper (26 September 1803 – 7 February 1902) was an English landscape painter from Canterbury, noted for his images of cattle and farm animals.

His most typical subjects ("repetitive" according to Mallalieu) are small groups of cows or sheep at rest, or often the two mixed together, occupying most of the picture space. He painted in both oils and watercolour, with oils predominating. Many are set in the marshes around Canterbury.

Early life

Thomas Sidney Cooper was born in St Peter's Street in Canterbury, Kent, and baptised at St Peter's Church. As a small child he began to show strong artistic talent, but his family had little money (his father had deserted the family when the boy was five) and could not pay for any tuition, or even for paper and pencils. Indeed, to help support the family, by the time he was twelve years old he was working as a coach painter, then later as a scenery painter with a travelling theatre company, and he alternated between these two occupations for about eight years. He still had a driving desire to become an artist, and all his spare moments were spent drawing and painting from nature. At the age of twenty he went to London, drew for a while in the British Museum, and after much perseverance was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy.

Unable to afford to continue living in London he was forced to return to Canterbury, where he earnt a living as a drawing master and by the sale of sketches and drawings. In 1827 he and friend went to Brussels and through some luck and perseverance, Cooper started to make a living through painting portraits and also becoming a drawing master. Here he met and married Charlotte Pearson. He also met Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven who was to have a great influence on his painting. The Belgian Revolution of 1830 saw Cooper and Charlotte returning to London with their first child. Cooper tried his luck in London again, selling sketches and teaching and showed his first picture at the Royal Academy in 1833, beginning a long and prolific career as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy and British Institution among others. His 'Intercepted Raid, Ettrick Shepherd', exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1842, an oil on canvas, sold at Sotheby’s for £37,500 making it, at that time, the most valuable work to be sold at auction.