Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/429

 published (impression in collection of Mr. Neville Cooper). The revolution of 1830 meant the loss of many of his patrons, who had left Brussels at the crisis. Returning to England, he settled in London early in 1831, and for some time earned his living by doing drawings and lithographs for box lids, &c., for Ackerman and others, continuing to practise his painting of sheep and cattle in Regent's Park. His first exhibit at Suffolk Street in 1833 at once brought him into notice, and secured him a patron in Robert Vernon. He exhibited forty-eight pictures in all at the British Institution between 1833 and 1863. He also had occasional exhibits at the Society of British Artists, the New Water Colour Society, the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil-colours, and at exhibitions of the Liverpool Academy and Royal Manchester Institution. A picture, 'Landscape and Cattle,' was hung in the Royal Academy in 1833. It now belongs to Lord Northbrook. It was the first of a series of 266 exhibits which were shown without the interruption of a single year down to 1902. His Royal Academy pictures in 1843-5 ('Watering Cattle, Evening' ; 'Repose' ; 'Going to Pasture') greatly increased his popularity, and in 1845 he was elected A.R.A. Studies of sheep or cattle were his constant subjects, but in 1846 he attempted a large historical painting, the 'Defeat of Kellermann's Cuirassiers at Waterloo' (the half-past one o'clock charge), which was exhibited with the 'Cartoons' in Westminster Hall in 1847. This picture and a 'Hunting Scene' (R.A. 1890) were isolated examples of an endeavour to depict vigorous action ; he cannot be said to have succeeded in excursions outside the somewhat narrow field of his art. Between 1848 and 1856 he painted the cattle in numerous landscapes by Frederick Lee, R.A. (examples being preserved in South Kensington and the Tate Gallery). Fifteen of these were shown at the Academy and four at the British Institution between 1849 and 1855. He also painted animals in several of Creswick's landscapes. This middle period probably contains the best of his work. After about 1870 commissions were so constant and so lucrative that he was tempted to yield to facile repetition of his favourite themes, seldom developing new subjects or giving the requisite thought to those that he repeated. Among the best pictures may be mentioned 'Drovers crossing Newbigging Muir in a Snowdrift, East Cumberland' (R.A. 1860) ; 'Drovers collecting their Flocks under the Fells, East Cumberland' (R.A. 1861 ; for the earl of Ellesmere) ; ' Catching Wild Goats on Moel Siabod, North Wales' (Brit. Inst. 1863); 'The Shepherd's Sabbath' (R.A. 1866). He was elected R.A. in 1867, presenting 'Milking Time in the Meadows' for the diploma gallery in 1869. In 1873 and 1874 he exhibited two pictures of bulls, 'The Monarch of the Meadows' (sold in 1873 to Mr. J. D. Allcroft for 2500l.) and 'Separated, but not Divorced.' His largest picture, 'Pushing off for Tilbury Fort, on the Thames,' painted when he was eighty, was exhibited at the Academy in 1884. In 1848 he purchased land at Harbledown near Canterbury, calling the house which he had built 'Vernon Holme,' after his early patron. He still kept on his London house and studio, but 'Vernon Holme' remained his retreat until his death, in his ninety-ninth year, on 7 Feb. 1902. He published his autobiography under the title My Life' (2 vols. 1890). His activity continued to the last, and he was engaged on pictures intended for the Royal Academy of 1902 within a few weeks of his death. In 1901 he was made C.V.O. by King Edward VII. Soon after the death of his mother in 1865 he had bought her house in St. Peter's Street, Canterbury, and an adjacent block, converting it into a school of art and picture gallery, with the purpose of giving free tuition to poor boys. In 1882 he presented the gallery (to be known as the 'Sidney Cooper Gallery of Art' ) to the town of Canterbury, making the condition that only a nominal fee should be charged for tuition to the artisan classes. On the acceptance of the gift, the corporation decided to convert the gallery into a regular school of art, and affiliate it with South Kensington. The following public galleries possess one or more of his pictures : National Gallery (two pictures from the Vernon collection, 'Milking Time,' exhibited R.A. 1834, and 'Cattle, Morning,' R.A. 1847, now on loan to the Albert Museum, Exeter, and to the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, respectively) ; National Gallery of British Art (the Tate Gallery) (three pictures, one done in collaboration with Frederick Lee, R.A.) ; Victoria and Albert Museum (three pictures, one in collaboration with Frederick Lee) ; Wallace collection ; Royal Academy, Diploma Gallery ; Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum ; Birmingham Art Gallery ;