Sydney Cooper Gallery
Centra voor cultuurspreiding/CC

Kent
Saint Peter Street
- Canterbury
VERENIGD KONINKRIJK

Contactpersoon: Monsieur BUTLER
Telefoon: 01227 782797

Thomas Sidney Cooper RA 1803 - 1902

Thomas Sidney Cooper was born on September 26th 1803 in the house next to the gallery. He became Britain’s most accomplished cattle and sheep painter. Whilst a keen artists as a boy; having little money, Cooper became a coach painter and a theatre scene painter. He went to Belgium in 1827 and was befriended by Eugene Verboeckhoven who along with Cuyp, Potter and the 17th century Dutch landscape painters, greatly influenced his style. He returned to London in 1831, exhibiting his first painting at the Royal Academy in 1833. He exhibited at the Royal Academy for sixty nine years continuously. He became very wealthy through his prodigious output and returned to live in Canterbury in 1849. He opened the Sidney Cooper Gallery in 1868. Cooper became a great local benefactor, donating the Sidney Cooper Gallery of Art to the city. He also built a theatre in Guildhall Street at his own expense and gave charitably to relieve local poverty. Later in his life, copies of his paintings were made and he invited owners to submit them to him for authentification. He charged a fee of five guineas regardless, and of 500 paintings sent back to him he claimed only 50 as his own. Cooper loved Canterbury and its surrounding countryside which is reflected in his art. He died in 1902 aged 98.

‘It gave me great pleasure to do what I could for the old place....I have always felt, and always shall feel, an interest in my native town.’

‘It would be a great happiness to me...to find the little seed I have sown has become a mighty plant.’

Thomas Sidney Cooper