Painting of the Week - William Sidney Cooper
Sheep by a Loch
This stunning large British Victorian Scottish landscape oil painting is by noted Kent artist William Sidney Cooper. William trained with his great-uncle Thomas Sidney Cooper at his School of Art in Canterbury. Painted in 1899 when the artist was 45 years old, the composition is a herd of long horn sheep walking towards the artist/viewer on a path beside a Scottish loch. The shepherd is behind the sheep and beyond him rise mountains under a blustery sky, all beautifully reflected in the loch. The vantage point is quite low, so the sheep appear as if they are about to walk into your sitting room! The gold tones of the sheep are echoed in the surrounding landscape and beautiful gold frame the work is housed in. The details in the sheep's soft shaggy coats, contrasted with their amazing long and some curly horns is superb. In contrast, the landscape features are more impressionist blocks of colour, all with incredible dramatic effect. This is a simply stunning British Victorian animal landscape oil painting and a lovely example of Cooper's work.
Signed and dated W. Sidney Cooper 1899 lower left
Provenance Sale, Christie's Edinburgh, 26th October 2006, lot 48
Purchased at the above sale
Click the link below for this painting
https://www.richardtaylorfineart.com/gallery/new/cooper-1/sheep-by-a-loch