The admirers of Mr. Cooper’s Cuyp-like pictures will be gratified with
the following anecdote of the early recognition of the painter’s genius,
pleasantly related by Miss Mitford, in her _Belford Regis_.
“Sometime in November, 1831, Mr. Cribb, an ornamental gilder in London,
(King-street, Covent Garden,) was struck with a small picture--a
cattle-piece, in a shop window in Greek-street, Soho. On inquiring for
the artist, he could learn no tidings of him; but the people of the shop
promised to find him out. Time after time, our persevering lover of the
arts called to repeat his inquiries, but always unsuccessfully; until
about three months after, when he found that the person he sought was a
Mr. Thomas Sydney Cooper, a young artist, who had been for many years
settled at Brussels, as a drawing-master, but had been driven from that
city by the Revolution, which had deprived him of his pupils, among whom
were some of the members of the royal family; and, unable to obtain
employment in London as a cattle-painter, he had, with the generous
self-devotion which most ennobles a man of genius, supported his family
by making lithographic drawings of fashionable caps and bonnets, I
suppose, as a puff for some milliner, or some periodical which deals in
costumes. In the midst of this interesting family, and of these caps and
bonnets, Mr. Cribb found him; and deriving from what he saw of his
sketches and drawings additional conviction of his genius, he
immediately commissioned him to paint a picture on his own subject, and
at his own price, making such an advance as the richest artist could not
scruple to accept on a commission, conjuring him to leave off caps and
bonnets, and foretelling his future eminence. Mr. Cribb says, that he
shall never forget the delight of Mr. Cooper’s face when he gave the
order--he has the right to the luxury of such a recollection. Well! the
picture was completed: our friend, Mr. Cribb, who is not a man to do his
work by halves, bespoke a companion, and while that was painting, showed
the first to a great number of artists and amateurs, who all agreed in
expressing the strongest admiration, and in wondering where the painter
could have been hidden. Before the second picture was half finished, a
Mr. Carpenter, (I believe that I am right in the name,) gave Mr. Cooper
a commission for a piece, which was exhibited in May, 1833, at the
Suffolk-street Gallery; and from that moment orders poured in, and the
artist’s fortune was made. It is right to add, that Mr. Cooper was
generously eager to have this story made known, and Mr. Cribb as
generously averse to its publication. But surety, it ought to be
recorded for the example sake, and for their mutual honour.”