Alfred Egerton Cooper 1883 - 1974
Born In Tettenhall Nr Wolverhampton he attended Bilston School of Ar then the Royal College of Art, from where he graduated in 1911. While still a student he met John Singer Sargent who was impressed by his work and he invited Cooper to work with him in his Studio in Tite Stree, Chelsea (Whcih had previously belonged to James McNeill Whistler). He remained here for about a year, working on backgrounds and details for Sargent’s paintings.
Cooper Specialised in portraits, figure subjects and Landscapes and he exhibited quite widely including the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the
Chenil Gallery, the Royal Society of British Painters, the Glasgo Institute of Fine Arts etc.
In the First World War he served with the Artists Rifles and sustained damage to one eye by chlorine gas, but at the end of the war he was apointed as an Official War Artist.
In 1921 he was elected as an Associate member of the Royal Society of British Artists and he was made a full member in 1923. Cooper was instumental in the revival of the Chelsea Art Society which had beed dormant during the Second World War.
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