Born March 8, 1856 in Philadelphia, Colin Campbell Cooper enjoyed a comfortable childhood which fostered a love of the arts and culture. His father was a surgeon and his mother had a penchant for painting watercolors, a talent which perhaps prompted young Colin to later pursue the same medium in his own career.
Early Years
Cooper initially studied with painter Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Eakins was one of the country's best realists and an innovative art educator, despite the various scandals that came about due to some of his more radical teaching methods. Cooper then headed overseas for continued study at the Académie Julien in Paris, and to travel further and artistically capture foreign sights and scenes.
Upon returning from Europe, Cooper worked at Philadelphia's Drexel Institute as a watercolor instructor until he and his new bride, artist Emma Lampert Cooper, moved to New York and set up a studio in Manhattan. Though Cooper had considerable expertise in watercolors, he used oil paints with equal frequency and skill.
Cooper and The American Skyscraper
Cooper's coming into his own as an artist happened to coincide with a new urban phenomenon called the skyscraper. While what passed for a skyscraper circa 1900 might seem downright stumpy in comparison to today's vast towers, at that point in time the buildings were marvels of architecture. Cooper found them duly fascinating and began to paint the expanding skylines in brightly nuanced cityscapes of New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Chicago.
By 1911, the New York Times had declared Cooper to be America's "skyscraper artist par excellence," winning through his work "a place in art for these giant structures." When asked by the Times what he considered to be the most spectacular visual in New York, Cooper replied that the vantage point from Broad Street above Beaver Street was "one of the grandest things ever concocted by man." Cooper seemed to have an especially keen interest in the dynamic growth of the early 20th century, and how economic progress and expansion were radically changing the look and general culture of the American metropolis.
On Board the Carpathia
The Coopers both enjoyed traveling together, throughout Europe and even beyond to such exotic locales as India and Japan. Colin and Emma were en route to Gibraltar aboard the Carpathia liner in April of 1912 when their ship interrupted its voyage to rescue survivors of the epically doomed Titanic. Emma and Colin volunteered their services in the rescue mission, while Cooper's Rescue of the Survivors of the Titanic by the Carpathia memorialized one of the tragedy's final scenes.
Legacy
Cooper participated in many exhibitions throughout his career and was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1913. Following the death of his wife in 1920 from tuberculosis, Cooper shifted his home base more towards the southwest and California, and eventually remarried and settled in California. He still, however, continued to visit the East coast and kept his New York studio. Later in his career, Cooper assumed the deanship of the Santa Barbara School of the Arts School of Painting and began to exercise his literary talents as well. He was a great admirer of California's natural beauty and produced various landscapes of the region, and it is reported that these California works in particular are quite coveted among collectors.
Cooper died in November of 1937 in Santa Barbara. His paintings can be found in numerous American museums and also in the collection of The White House in Washington, D.C.
Sources
- New York: Memories of Times Past -- Francis Morrone (Thunder Bay Press, 2008)
- What is the Most Beautiful Spot in New York? -- The New York Times, June 18, 1911
- Colin Campbell Cooper -- Antiques and Fine Art Magazine
