|
About Colin Campbell Cooper
BORN: Philadelphia, 8 March 1856
DIED: Santa Barbara, California 6 November 1937
Colin Campbell Cooper III, an ubiquitous figure in the official art circles of New York and Philadelphia in the late nineteenth century, was a fifth-generation descendant of Thomas Cooper, who emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, to the United States. His mother’s ancestors were the colonial Williams family, originally from Weymouth, England. Our painter’s father, Dr. Colin Campbell Cooper, Jr., was a distinguished professional who held a degree in law and another in medicine from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Dr. Cooper was fond of culture and encouraged his children’s talents. One of several children, Colin showed an early interest in art, and his mother found time to instruct him in the use of watercolor. He was taught to copy the colorful images of chromolithographs, but “it was not until the [*Philadelphia] Centennial Exposition in 1876 that the first incentive to be a painter was born.”1 Sometime later, he enrolled
in the *Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under *Thomas Eakins. There, amidst the furor of controversy over Eakins’s teaching practices, Colin also received instruction from several other instructors. He went from Antique to life classes and learned to utilize *photography in his work. Listing his address as 1514 Chestnut Street, Cooper showed his art at the Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Philadelphia Society of Artists in the late winter of 1884.2
After several years at the Academy, Cooper reached a plateau of artistic development that required further study elsewhere. Before leaving for Europe in 1886, Cooper sided with *Thomas Anshutz and others against *Thomas Eakins at the Philadelphia Academy, after Eakins had exposed a fully nude male model in the women’s life drawing class. Some of the women and what Goodrich calls a “conservative minority,”3 including Cooper, petitioned the Academy’s directors, which led to Eakins’s resignation. While Anshutz may have acted in self-interest (he became an important faculty member), Cooper went to Europe. In his first stop in Antwerp he visited museums and galleries where he was particularly impressed by Rembrandt, *Hals, and other masters who demonstrated direct brushwork. In Holland he sketched the *picturesque scenery at Monnickendam, Volendam, and Maarken. Eventually, Cooper reached France and, upon his arrival in Paris, enrolled in the *Académie Julian, a noisy, overcrowded place filled with aspiring American art students. There, as in Philadelphia, great emphasis was placed upon drawing the nude figure, and *Gustave Boulanger, chief instructor at Julian’s, encouraged his students to achieve what was known as *caractPre in each figure study. Most of Cooper’s work, however, was critiqued by *H. Lucien Doucet, an instructor at Julian’s whom *Rewald described as a “suave and polished Parisian . . . [who] showed some benign sympathy for the experimental eccentricities current in the studios.”4 Cooper’s training also would have included outside class assignments centered on historical or mythological themes.
Despite the excitement over impressionism, Cooper, like most of his American friends, was slow in assimilating the style, seeking instead a combination of the Salon manner with impressionist brushwork; as time continued, he became somewhat more influenced by impressionism. After four years in Paris, Cooper returned to America. Arriving in Philadelphia probably in the latter part of 1890, he resumed his career there and began specializing in the depiction of city scenes. The artist said he “was struck with the artistic possibilities of our American streets and the great skyscrapers and the crowding traffic.”5 In the spring of 1891, a work by Cooper, entitled Night Fall, was shown in the annual exhibition of the *National Academy of Design. Two years later, Cooper listed his address as 1224 Chestnut Street and exhibited two works at the National Academy, one of which, called The River he offered for sale at $650. In that year, when the *World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago became a forum for impressionism, Cooper submitted two portraits for exhibition.6
Cooper returned to Europe about 1894. He worked for nearly a year at Laren, Holland, a spot not far from Amsterdam. Years later, Cooper recalled that he “painted many interiors of Dutch houses.”7 Upon his return to Philadelphia, these works were shown at the Haseltine Art Galleries, while another work received a bronze medal at the 1895 Atlanta Exposition. Unfortunately, little is known of these paintings, as most of them were burned in a fire at the Haseltine firm in 1896.8 During that period Cooper accepted a teaching assignment as instructor of watercolor painting and architectural rendering at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. He continued to show his European pictures in national group shows at the *Art Institute of Chicago, *Society of American Artists, *Boston Art Club, and other institutions. Cooper also demonstrated his ability with watercolor in such works as The Day of the Regatta, Venice, shown at the Annual Exhibition of the *American Water Color Society in the late winter of 1898. Resigning his teaching position at Drexel that year, Cooper and his wife, *Emma Lampert Cooper, a former pupil of Harry Thompson in Paris and *William Merritt Chase in New York, sojourned in Europe and England.
Established in London, the couple painted in Italy, France, and other favorite spots, to create a stock of works for exhibition in America. For example, Rouen Cathedral was sent by Cooper to the 1899 NAD annual. He must have known *Monet’s series executed earlier in the decade in front of the same cathedral. A member of the *Philadelphia Art Club and the T-Square Club, Cooper worked through the turn of the century executing increasingly impressionistic pictures. His recording of light and application of *broken color had improved considerably. At that time, his city scenes centered less on the aspects of urban genre and more frequently featured large buildings and skyscrapers as a central pictorial motif, but they are never simply illustrative “portraits” of buildings. In these compositions, he and
others of his generation, such as *Childe Hassam, *Theodore Butler, and *Birge Harrison, provided precedent ideas for works by younger painters such as *Roy Brown, *Paul Cornoyer, *Guy Wiggins, and *Edmund W. Greacen. By the first few years of the twentieth century, a focus on urban subject matter figured prominently in Cooper’s oeuvre.
The American Water Color Society presented Cooper with the William T. Evans Prize in 1903, and in March of the same year he and Emma Cooper exhibited their work together at the Klackner Gallery in New York. In his forties, Cooper enjoyed an active and rewarding career. He won the Jennie Sesnan Prize, awarded by the Pennsylvania Academy in 1904 for Broad Street Station, Philadelphia. He was also on the award jury for the *St. Louis Universal Exposition. This was followed by a gold medal from the Philadelphia Art Club in 1905, for St. Paul’s Bridge, Pathway; and, three years later, he was elected an Associate member of the NAD.
By that time, Cooper’s application of the impressionist technique produced a striking picture surface. His ability to show the effects of sunlight was notable, and form was broken into tapestry-like patterns of contrasting color. In such works, which were painted en *plein air, Cooper demonstrated his debt to impressionism and the influence of *Pissarro’s handling of similar *subject matter. For such work Cooper was awarded a silver medal in the 1910 Buenos Aires Exposition, and, in the following year, he won his second important award in watercolor, the Beal Prize, from the *New York Water Color Club. During this decade, Cooper and his wife made their home in New York, but visited Europe regularly, bringing the results of their trips back to America for exhibition. Like *Whistler, Cooper had a unique ability to make something attractive out of otherwise “prosaic structures.” In his use of a colorful impressionistic technique, Cooper’s art was frequently singled out by critics for discussion.9
Once again, the excellence of Cooper’s work was recognized by the National Academy when he was elected a full member. In 1913, the American art community reverberated with the shock of the New York *Armory Show. The Coopers painted in many parts of the world, enjoying the *Good Life of the American impressionists. During that winter, they visited India, Ceylon, and Burma. Colin recalled that he “spent several months there getting as far east as Rangoon. . . . I found the palaces and
tombs of northern India wonderfully beautiful, the Taj Mahal at Agra being one of the exceptional places.”10 Thus the artist’s predilection for architectural subjects brought him to buildings quite different from Western skyscrapers, but his superb rendering of them resulted in a few of his most accomplished works. Cooper was unusually skilled in his handling of the brilliant Indian light, to which his *high-keyed impressionist palette was particularly well suited.
The Coopers made their way back to America via a route through Europe, delaying during the spring and summer of 1914.11 Returning to his 59th Street studio in New York, a one-man show of his work was arranged by *Macbeth Gallery for February 1915. The show was well received by the press and Cooper was gratified to learn of his two awards from the *Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a silver medal for his watercolor and a gold medal for his oil paintings.12 In the fall of 1915, both he and his wife showed their paintings of India in a special exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, New York. Approximately one month later, a similar exhibit was sent to Chicago for presentation at the O’Brien Gallery. It is unknown if the Coopers traveled from New York to visit the show, but a local newspaper did report their visit to Los Angeles in April of 1916.13 Fascinated by the scenery of Southern California, both artists sketched all’aperto in the area until October, when they returned to New York.14
A member of both the *Lotos and *Salmagundi clubs, Cooper had works in the permanent collections of several museums. A painting entitled Broad Street, New York, appeared in the Cincinnati Museum, while The Plaza, New York, went to the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts. Cooper’s handling of watercolor was usually praised, and it earned the Hudnut Prize from the New York Water Color Club in 1918. This was followed by the Lippincott Prize in 1919, awarded by the Pennsylvania Academy. The year 1920 was a period of extreme change for the artist. The excitement of the French government’s purchase of his Fifth Avenue, New York, for the Luxembourg Museum collection was eclipsed by the death of Emma in July. Shortly thereafter, he visited California again, settling in Santa Barbara in 1921. Cooper spent the following year in California, but in 1923 he returned to Europe in search of new subjects for his canvases. He was in Spain for the remainder of that year and a good deal of 1924. Cooper painted out-of-doors but also reported that he “made interiors of the cathedrals at Seville, at Burgos, at Segovia, and at Avila.”15 In the spring of 1925, these works were combined with others from California and exhibited at the Stendahl Art Gallery in Los Angeles. They were appreciated by the press.16 During this time, Cooper painted a variety of subjects, ranging from portraits to flower pictures to landscapes, most of which were brightly colored and handled with broader brushwork than his earlier paintings.
Working as an instructor at the Santa Barbara Community School of Arts, Cooper eventually became the dean. In March of 1927, his work was mounted in a one-man show at
Ainslee Galleries, as well as at the Santa Barbara Art League. Also in that year, he and Marie Frehsee of Santa Barbara traveled to Kingman, Arizona, where they were married. Cooper (now seventy-one) and his wife remained in Southern California, where they led an active cultural life during the late twenties. Painting regularly, the artist compared the gardens of Italy to those of his own area, stating: “I do not think that anywhere in the world will
be found anything more exquisite . . . than the gardens of California at, say, Pasadena and Montecito.”17 In these years, the artist turned his attention to a new form of art, writing plays, but not, reportedly, at the expense of his painting. His play, Head Acres was described as “an amusing satire on the old-fashioned melodramas” and was seen at the Pasadena Playhouse and other theaters.18
In February of 1929, Cooper’s paintings were mounted in a well-publicized retrospective exhibition at Kievets, and, in the fall of the following year, fifty-seven of his watercolors and paintings were shown at the Art Club of Philadelphia. These were America’s first Depression years, which not only made sales quite difficult, but also witnessed the last gasping breaths of representational art, particularly impressionism. Cooper made his feelings known when he stated: “There is a new beauty and new ideals born of these new conditions, and occasionally one sees a glimmer of the spirit of understanding them, but in general this
so-called ‘modern art’ is hopelessly depressing and banal.”19 In spite of the difficult times, Cooper’s works were shown in 1932 and in the following year at the Ebell Club in Los Angeles, although the work received a fraction of the attention it had in previous years. The Faulkner Memorial Art Gallery presented an important retrospective for Cooper in 1934, which included a complete range of his media. In the following three years little was heard of the artist’s activities, although he remained busy until illness stopped him a few weeks before his death at the age of eighty-four.
REF.
Howe, 1906; Art in California, 1916, pl. 110; Burke, 1980, pp. 289-292; Hansen, 1981; Impressionism: The California View, 1981, pp. 86, 100; Moure, 1984, p. 52; Hirschl and Adler Galleries, 1985, cat. no. 8; Westphal, 1986, pp. 52-57; Art in the White House, 1992, p. 305; Gerdts, 1992-B, cat. no. 24; Gerdts, 1994, pp. 10-12, 16, 50-52, 58-60, 84-87, 115-116, 121-122, 143-144, 147; Love, 1999, pp. 91-92, 155, 163; Becker, 2000, p. 124; M. Price, 2002; Cooper, n.d.
|
Paintings by Colin Campbell Cooper
| The Georgian Home |
| oil on canvas:36 x 29 inches |
| signed: lower left |
|
| |
Click Picture to Enlarge
|
|
)