Colin Campbell Cooper (1856-1937)
The son of a wealthy Philadelphia physician, Colin Campbell Cooper was one of those fortunate, and rare, American artists like John Singer Sargent who was not only encouraged in his artistic aspirations, but also had the means to become a lifetime world traveler. His father, a surgeon, encouraged the young Cooper’s interest in music and literature; and his mother, an “amateur copyist” of watercolors, introduced the boy to art. After first studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, in 1886 where he was a student of Thomas Eakins, Cooper later moved to New York where he met and was greatly influenced by Childe Hassam. From New York Cooper went to France, where he enrolled at the Academie Julian. His training there ultimately led to a series of major successes, from his views of New York and Chicago skyscrapers, to his role as one of California’s pioneer Impressionists.
In 1895 he returned to Philadelphia and taught painting at the Drexel Institute prior to moving to New York City. In 1897 Cooper married the Rochester, New York, artist, Emma Lampert, and subsequently moved to New York. Both before and after his marriage, Cooper maintained a second residence in London, from which he made frequent trips to the Continent. During this same period, one of his favorite subjects was Holland, whose cities and harbors with their sun-struck architecture, open skies, and bustling crowds of people, inspired what were to become the hallmarks of many of his later paintings of Belgium, France, Spain, India and Burma. From 1915 on, Cooper spent much time in California before moving permanently to Santa Barbara in 1921, and it was in southern California that Cooper found, as he describes in his own words “the sort of thing a painter most craves – agreeable climate, plenty of sunshine, flowers, mountains, seascapes, and things; not to mention friends interest in all sorts of artistic endeavor.”
P4A acknowledges the assistance of Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers and Bruce Chambers, Ph.D. in preparing this reference note.