Gerald Cooper

1898 - 1975

Cooper was a painter, sculptor and teacher whose works included children’s portraits, landscapes and horses, but who was particularly successful with his meticulous flower paintings in the manner of the Dutch Old Masters. Cooper was part of the brilliant generation of students who went up to the Royal College in 1921, including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Raymond Coxon, Edna Ginesi, Charles Tunnicliffe, Vivian Pitchforth and Muriel Minter, whom he later married. Along with Minter and their daughter Jenifer, his work was shown in a Cooper family exhibition in 1984. Born in Staffordshire, he served in the Observer Corps and Royal Flying Corps in World War I, afterwards attending West Bromwich School of Art, before attending the RCA, where he shared the Drawing Prize with Phyllis Dodd. In 1929, he became long-term principal of Wimbledon School and was a keen advocate of art education.

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