Thomas Sidney Cooper (British 1803-1902)

Reposing on God’s Acre was one of three works exhibited by Thomas Sidney Cooper at the Royal Academy in 1875. Cooper noted in his memoirs ‘To the exhibition of 1875 I sent three paintings, of which Reposing on God’s Acre, a scene in a churchyard with sheep, seemed to be the most generally noticed.’ (T.S. Cooper, Autobiography, 1890, vol. 2, p.190). In spite of this statement there are few press reports on his Royal Academy exhibits of 1875. Yet this painting must count as one of the most impressive and significant works by this prolific and long-lived artist who, over an exhibiting career at the Royal Academy of 69 years (the longest on record), rarely ever seems to have painted a picture which did not involve either cows or sheep.

Painted when he was in his early 70s, it marks the peak of Cooper’s career and artistic prowess. In the late 19th century male life expectancy was 40 years of age; thus Cooper was already an old man and certainly not to know in 1875 that he would live another 27 years – remarkable even by today’s expectations of longevity. Rich in symbolic interpretation, the painting depicts Cooper’s local churchyard at the end of the day with the sun setting in the distance. In his characteristically fine rendering of the sheep’s wool, he depicts youth and old age, with one of the lambs resting its head on a gravestone, while mature sheep gather round the central yew tree, a symbol of immortality - outliving both man and animal. Although Cooper’s work is not generally regarded as deeply symbolic, in the present painting he is clearly reflecting on his own mortality, and perhaps wondering how much longer he will retain his remarkable talent.

St Michael and All Angels, Harbledown

The setting of the painting is the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, Harbledown, on the outskirts of Canterbury, only a few hundred yards from Cooper’s house, Vernon Holme. The 12th century flint and stone parish church was enlarged in the 13th century and again in the 1880s. The unusual 18th century gravestones featured in the painting, with their scrolled tops carved with skulls, hour-glasses and angels, can still be found in the churchyard. Cooper’s preparatory sketch of the tallest gravestone, that of John Sankey (d. 1740) also formerly in the Forbes Magazine Collection, provides evidence of his usual practise of working from careful studies executed ‘from nature’. Some artistic licence is evident in order to create a more balanced composition, both in the re-positioning of the gravestones and in the height of the ancient yew tree, which also survives.

'God's Acre': Religious Themes in Art

‘God’s Acre’ is an ancient Saxon term describing a churchyard burial ground or cemetery. It was a subject used by other artists including Emily Osborn and Benjamin Williams Leader, whose painting God’s Acre, Evening (1894) shows a similar country churchyard. It was also popular in 19th century literature: one of Longfellow’s poems entitled God’s Acre describes it as ‘the field and Acre of our God...where human harvests grow.’ Thomas Faed exhibited another painting with the same title in 1872 showing a group of children gazing into an open grave. While Cooper’s painting contains no open grave, a gravedigger’s tools are present in the foreground so we can assume that a grave has been, or is about to be, dug.

Sheep have traditionally been associated with the iconography of Christ and the Church. The notion of the pastoral flock tended by the Good Shepherd was popular amongst Victorian artists, the most resonant being William Holman Hunt’s Hireling Shepherd (1852, Manchester, Art Gallery). Cooper may well have taken inspiration from Sir Edwin Landseer’s The Baptismal Font (c. 1870, Royal Collection) exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1872 (152). It shows a flock of sheep in the open countryside gathered around a Gothic font carved with the head of Christ crowned with thorns, upon which three doves alight, symbolising the Holy Spirit and Trinity. Commissioned by Queen Victoria, Landseer’s work is full of religious references and meaning; the Good Shepherd and his ‘flock’.

Thomas Sidney Cooper's Painting Technique

Based on Dutch 17th century traditions, Cooper’s painting technique remained largely the same throughout his long career. He made a vast quantity of oil studies and pencil sketches of animals and landscapes and used them to help formulate his composition once he had decided on an overall theme. He then composed his subject on a small scale either in pencil or oil and transferred the composition to a commercially prepared canvas or panel with a smooth white ground. He proceeded to draw with a pencil the outlines of all the principal forms.

The finished result was so accurate that Cooper was said to have considered it as fine as an engraver’s etching. He then applied a monochrome underpaint, of dead colour, before applying the final colours, progressing to build up the pigment towards the highlights: white in the animals, blues on the sky and strong emphasis on details in the foreground foliage. While his work is characterised by a highly finished surface reminiscent of the Dutch masters of the 17th century, Cooper’s style was also influenced by the Belgian animal painter Eugène Verboeckhoven whom he befriended when he was teaching in Brussels in the late 1820s. Cooper’s best pictures have a technical achievement and scale that sets him apart from most of his contemporaries.

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Auction Details

Wednesday 10 June, 10.30am BST
Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE

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