Cows
In his autobiography, Home and Abroad, Merton says that he knew the artist, but had quite a harsh opinion of him, saying that ‘Cooper’s works were pictures pure and simple, far more than works of art’.
Thomas Sidney Cooper was born in Canterbury, Kent, and as a small child began to show strong artistic inclinations. By the time he was twelve years old, he was working in the shop of a coach painter. Later he obtained a job as a scene painter; and he alternated between these two occupations for about eight years. When he was 21, he was helped by his uncle to move to London and study at the Royal Academy. However, he did not complete the course and returned to Canterbury. Shortly afterwards in 1824, he travelled to Brussels where he met Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven (1798-1881) who had a great influence on his work. In 1833 he made his debut at the Royal Academy, where he continued to exhibit regularly until his death. He also exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists and the British Institution between 1833 and 1863.
He is mainly associated with pictures of cattle or sheep, a fact that earned him the epithet ‘Cow Cooper’. He became one of the most accomplished and successful animal landscape painters of the 19th century.
