deodands

Byron Cooper

Byron Cooper (1850-1933) was a British landscape painter who was active at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. He lived most of his life in south Manchester.

This entry contains some of the source material I am aware of on him.

Likenesses

Lynn Morton is a great nieve of Byron Cooper's daughter Enid. I'm grateful to her and her husband Eryl for supplying these photographs and newspaper clippings.

Byron Cooper

Byron Cooper c1920

Byron Cooper by Weatherby for the Manchester Evening Chroncicle. 1920.

Enid Cooper

Obituaries

From the Altrincham, Bowdon and Hale Guardian, Friday July 14th 1933:

BOWDON ARTIST'S DEATH

at age of 83

a distinguished career

Mr Byron Cooper



A loss to the world of art has been occasioned by the death of Mr Byron Cooper, aged 83, which occurred at his residence, The Birches, Vicarage Lane, Bowdon, early on Tuesday morning.

Mr Cooper was born at Manchester, but had resided in the Bowdon district for many years. He was educated in London and Manchester, being a pupil of the Rev. James McDougall, at Chadderton Hall.

STUDIED WITH GREAT PAINTERS

He studied at the life classes of the MAFA and afterwards with two great French painters, Jules Breton and Carolus Duran. He first exhibited at the Royal Institution about 1870 and the Royal Academy virtually every year since 1881. He exhibited at the MAFA every year since the '70s.

He was specially selected no fewer than seven times to represent British art, in both oil and water-colour, at the great international exhibitions all over the world, including that at Paris at 1889, where a large water colour, "Grange Fell", was hung in the coveted place of honour, a high compliment to be paid to an Englishman by a French committee.

AWARDED ROYAL INSTITUTION'S SILVER MEDAL

Mr Cooper was awarded the silver medal presented Royal Institution for the best picture of early morning. His "Tennyson's Country" collection of pictures, comprising more than one hundred works, has been shown, by request, first in London by Henry Graves and Company, and subsequently at Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, and all the leading cities in England, as a "one-man show" at the expense of the different corporations concerned.

In his youth he was noted as an athlete, having been an amateur champion in different branches of sport. He won more than 100 medals.

From a typescript transcription in Manchester Public Libraries (Local Collections Biographical Cuttings), which adds

Exhibited Altrincham February 1935; December 1936-February 1937. Pictures loaned by daughter Mrs Enid Cooper.

Full name George Gordon Byron Cooper: Date of death 11th July 1933.

Details of Miss Enid Cooper in Who's Who in Art 3rd Edition 1934[?1]. NB Perhaps further biographical details of Byron Cooper may be in the second edition of this work - 1929

And the Sale and Stretford Guardian, 22nd February 1935:

Bowdon Artist's Paintings

Byron Cooper

Altrincham Art Exhibition

The first public exhibition in Altrincham of the oil-paintings and watercolour drawings by the late Byron Cooper (of Bowdon) was opened on Saturday, when a number of invitations were extended to a private view of the exhibition, which is to be held at the John Newton Art Gallery, Central Library, George Street, Altrincham, until March 30th.

The exhibition is the sixth to be held in the Altrincham Art Gallery, and is one of the finest yet presented to the local public. Mr Cooper, until his death, was known for a number of years as the 'grand old man' of Manchester artists. He was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy, and one of the artists specially singled out for the honour of representing Great Britain at the large international exhibitions of Paris, St Louis, USA, New Zealand, etc; the Franco-British, Coronation, Irish, and Spanish Exhibitions.

Fifty-one examples now hang in the gallery, and one of them, 'Early Autumn', has been presented to the Altrincham permanent collection by Miss Enid Cooper, in memory of her father, who was a familar figure locally.

An exhibition of Byron Cooper's work was held at the Central Art Gallery, Manchester, last autumn, but the Altrincham exhibition displays many examples not then shown, including a large canvas that instantly attracts attention - an oil painting of Rostherne Mere by moonlight.

The pictures have been lent by Miss Enid Cooper, and others, and have been most tastefully and effectively hung. We were privileged to attend the private view on Staurday afternoon, and formed the impression that here was an exhibition which must commend itself to every lover of the beautiful in this district. It is difficult to single out individual works for mention, but 'Moonlight, Kynance Bay, Cornwall', 'Evening, Carbis Bay, Cornwall',' and 'Peace', a translucent rendering of a moonlit sea, are uncommonly attractive and carefully executed.

An interesting souvenir catalogue has been issued, price one penny. Altrincham school children are to have the opportunity of inspecting the collection, and the Curator (Mr WG Bosworth) has invited the head masters of local schools to send parties of children, when it is hoped to arrange for them to hear a short address on the works, to be given either by Miss Cooper, or the Curator.

Kinloch Castle

Other biographical notes

Cooper was married to Julia Cooper, born c1855, and the father of Enid, born c1884 (Source: 1901 census). Enid exhibited a single work, A Cornish Headland, at the RA in 1918.

Known addresses  (from RA exhibitor guide):

Societies

AMAFA 1891, Council member, 1896-1899, Member of Athenaeum Graphic Club, 1881. Photograph of the artist is in the MAFA cuttings book of 1896.

Paintings

Kinloch Castle. Image taken by George W Randall for the Kinloch Castle Friends Association

The Pool, Wendover (Bucks), Autumn. Image provided by Lynn Morton.

The only other online images I know of a work of Cooper's:

Freshwater Isle of Wight on a dealer site.

Lots 1000 (reserve £400) and 1001 (reserve £200) at a 2003 sale.

No image, but a recent 2004 sale lot of A field Landscape at Sunset, signed and dated '91, watercolour, unframed, 8.5 x 11.5in; estimate at £70-120.

Collections

Manchester City Art Gallery owns two or three Coopers. They are Godrevy Light, 1905 (6358; 1905.24) A Cornish Lanscape 1928 (1928.9) and possibly a third watercolour.

They hold an unpblished directory of local artists which records a holding at Rochdale Art Gallery of Across The Moorland, and at the no longer extant Altrincham Art Gallery of A Bay and Early Autumn.

From Royal Academy exhibitors list (RA), Manchester Academy of Fine Artists Spring Exhibitions (MAFA); and Manchester Art Gallery Spring Exhibition (MAG) (from documentation in Manchester Art Gallery).