Thomas Sidney Cooper CVO RA

Thomas Sidney Cooper was an English landscape painter from Canterbury, noted for paintings of cattle and farm animals. As a small child he began to show artistic talent, but his family could not afford for any tuition or materials. At the age of twenty he went to London, drew for a while in the British Museum, and after much perseverance was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy. Unable to afford to continue living in London he was forced to return to Canterbury. In 1827, he went to Brussels and began making a living through painting portraits and working as a drawing master. He also met Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven who greatly influenced his painting. Cooper returned to London again, both teaching and selling works. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1833, beginning a long and prolific career as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy and British Institution among others. Cooper was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1845 and Royal Academician in 1867.