A FAMOUS ARTIST.

Evening Star, Issue 11677, 8 February 1902, Page 6

A FAMOUS ARTIST.

OLD AMD FULL OF HONORS.

Press Association—By Teli

LONDON, February 7. (Received February 8, at 9.20 a.m.) Thomas Sidney Cooper, the famous painter, aged ninety-nine years, is dead.

Thomas Sidney Cooper was born at Canterbury in 1803. He was the oldest of the Royal Academicians in point of years, though not in date •of election. He commenced to draw on bis slate at the age of eight. The very first drawing he ever did was with -a slate pencil, of the Bell Tower of Canterbury Cathedral. It was not until he was twelve or thirteen that his career really commenced. Then he started to paint coaches for Mr Burgess, of Canterbury, at 12s a week. At the age of sixteen he was engaged as scene painter at a guinea a week to a travelling company. Mr Cooper’s first work of importance was founded on his first love. The cathedral and its precincts was one of the dearest spots on earth to him, and he did some excellent drawings on stone of the cathedral and Canterbury in general. The gateway of St. Augustine’s Monastery and High street, Canterbury, showing the coach waiting out-side-the George and Dragon, are good examples of these—particularly the latter—as it tends to show something of what the Cathedral City was like when Mr Cooper was unconsciously stepping to fame with the aid of a school slate and pencil. At 'last he got to London, and gained a studentship at the Royal Academy, then held at Somerset House. But his uncle, who had promised to support him while working at the Academy, suddenly threw Lira over, and he was forced to go back to Canterbery, and was obliged to paint coaches once more and give lessons in drawing. It was an important step when he, together with his friend Wm. Bnrgess. decided to try the 'Ooatinent. The young artist was now twenty-four years of age.' He positively painted liis way from Calais to Brussels, by doing likenesses of the proprietors of small hostelries, together with their families, in return for his board and lodging. He got on very well in Brussels, giving lessons there, and began to make money. It was. at Brussels that be met Yerbockhoveu, the great animal painter, who persuaded him to paint cattle. Then came the Revolution of 1830. He was forced to return to England in May, 1831, with a wife and child, and with £l3 in his pocket. He made his way to London, and fortunately for him Ackerman’s, in the Strand, liked a bundle of his drawings, and purchased them at five shillings apiece. Success came at last,. through an old fellow-student, Caterson Smith, who eventually became president of the Royal Academy of Dublin. Then Mr Carpenter, a Bond street dealer, found young Cooper out, and gave him a commission to paint a picture for £3O. It was exhibited in 1833 St the Suffolk street gallery on the line—a half-length picture of a Kentish farm. The Press were most enthusiastic. “Xere’s a new man,” the critics said—“a new man who will create a great school,” as Cooper did.