ALFRED EGERTON COOPER PAINTINGS FOR SALE & BIOGRAPHY

ALFRED EGERTON COOPER

British, 1883–1974

BIOGRAPHY
Although the artist painted landscapes, coastal and harbor views of Great Britain and horse racing scenes, he is best known for his portraits of European royalty and other public figures. Born in 1883, he studied at the Bilston School of Art and on a scholarship at London’s Royal College of Art, from which he graduated in 1911. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of 18 and would continue exhibiting throughout his career.

Following his graduation, Cooper entered a competition for which John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was on the board of judges. Sargent asked Cooper to work with him in his famous Tite Street studio in Chelsea, which had once belonged to James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Cooper worked as Sargent’s assistant, painting backgrounds and details for his paintings.

Cooper served in the well-known 28th County of London Volunteer Regiment, the Artists Rifles, during World War I, losing his sight in one eye due to chlorine gas. At the end of the war, he was appointed official artist of the Royal Air Force, and he became an expert in the art and technique of large-scale aerial camouflage and sketching and painting landscapes from the air. Some of his works are now in the Royal Air Force Museum and London’s Imperial War Museum.

He was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1914, participated in the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in 1921, and won an Honorable Mention at the Paris Salon in 1924. He also exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and Goupil Gallery. In 1940, he painted King George VI, and his 1943 portrait of Winston Churchill was reproduced as a poster intended to rally the English people during World War II. His son, Peter C. Cooper, would become an artist in the United States.

Museum Collections:
Guildhall Art Gallery, London
Houses of Parliament, London
Imperial War Museum, London
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
National Portrait Gallery, London

Mark Murray Fine Paintings is a New York gallery specializing in buying and selling 19th century and early 20th century artwork.