Astley David Middleton Cooper (American, 1856-1924) Captive, 1902 oil on canvas signed Astley D.M. Cooper and dated (lower right) 30 x 50 inches Property Sold to Benefit the Collections Care or Acquisitions Fund of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Astley David Middleton (ADM) Cooper (American, 1856-1924), Mountain Waterfall, 1915, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, canvas: 34"h x 17.5"w, overall (with frame): 43"h x 26"w
Astley David Middleton Cooper (American, 1856-1924) oil on canvas painting of a rural country scene of a stream and trees with a person fishing, signed lower left, dated 1923. [Aart: 19 1/2" H x 15 1/2" W; Frame: 28" H x 22" W].
HUNTED". This large painting depicts two Native Americans on horseback at full gallop carrying a spear and other weapons, fleeing from an unknown danger. Housed in a heavy, deep gold gilt frame. SIZE: overall 48" x 72", sight 32 1/2" x 62 1/2". CONDITION: very good. PROVENANCE: Martin Lane Historic & Western Americana Lifetime Collection. (02-21711/TG). $800-1,200. PROVENANCE: Martin Lane Historic & Western Americana Lifetime Collection.
Astley David Middleton Cooper (American, 1856-1924) oil on canvas painting of a rural country scene of a stream and trees with a person fishing, signed lower left, dated 1923. [Aart: 19 1/2" H x 15 1/2" W; Frame: 28" H x 22" W].
Astley David Middleton Cooper (1856-1924) Coastal Lupines and Poppies Circa 1920 The oil on canvas is signed and dated 1920 lower left and titled by a dealer listing later. Canvas measures 20 x 24 with a framed size of 28.25 x 32.5 inches. Without proof of exemption, be aware that internet sales tax applies to all Internet transactions and local sales tax may apply to local pick-up transactions. We happily provide seamless in-house packing and shipping services on nearly everything we sell. Until further notice, we cannot offer international shipping in-house.
Astley David Middleton Cooper (1856-1924) Native American Scouts in a Western Landscape signed 'A.D.M. Cooper' (lower right) oil on canvas 23 3/4 x 38 3/4 in. framed 32 1/4 x 47 1/4 in.
Astley David Middleton Cooper (1856-1924) Chip-Ink-Tu-Ta (Prairie Flower) signed 'A.D.M. Cooper. 1910.' (lower left) and titled (on the reverse) oil on canvas 29 1/2 x 24 1/4 in. framed 36 x 30 in.
Astley David Middleton Cooper (California/Missouri, 1856-1924) oil on canvas vertical western landscape painting depicting towering redwoods at sunset with a buck standing at the edge of a body of water. Signed and dated "A.D.M. Cooper. 1922," lower left. Housed in the original molded giltwood Art Deco style frame. Canvas: 39" H x 18" W. Frame: 42 1/2" H x 21 3/8" W. Biography: St. Louis born Astley D.M. Cooper became as famous for his bohemian lifestyle as for his Western paintings. In fact, Edan Hughes, author of the reference book, ARTISTS IN CALIFORNIA 1786-1940, stated that of the 16,000 artists he had chronicled, "none was as colorful as Astley David Middleton Cooper." The legendary Louisiana Territory explorer William Clark was the great uncle of Cooper's mother, and Cooper was heavily influenced by artist George Catlin, a family friend. Cooper attended Washington University, where he studied European Art, but did not graduate, choosing instead to head West. He illustrated for magazines of the day including Leslie's; earned commissions to paint an official portrait of President Ulysses S. Grant and still lifes of the jewelry of Mrs. Leland Stanford; and established a studio in San Francisco, where he became known for his wild parties, musical salons, and womanizing. He is said to have completed more than a thousand paintings in his career - including many nude scenes that paid his bar bills. Cooper's landscape paintings often had a serious side, however, with dark somber tones and an underlying commentary on the tragedy of the vanishing indigenous culture and wildlife of the American West.
Astley David Middleton Cooper American (St. Louis), 1856-1924 Landscape Oil on canvas, signed lower right Finely executed midwestern agricultural landscape, likely original frame. A.D.M. Cooper was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the great-great-nephew of William Clark of the Louis & Clark expedition and the grandson of Benjamin O'Fallon, the well-known patron of early frontier artist George Catlin.
Astley David Middleton Cooper California, Missouri, (1856-1924) Diptych; Cherubs with Roses, 1895 oil on board Signed and dated lower left. A few small chips in the paint. One frame is chipped. Biography from Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery: ADM Cooper was a popular and respected northern California artist who specialized in Native American genre painting and other scenes of the vanishing west. Cooper was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to David Middleton Cooper, a prominent physician, and Fannie Clark O'Fallon, grand-niece of legendary explorer, William Clark. George Catlin, the early explorer/painter of Plains Indian life, was a family friend, and his paintings and stories probably inspired Cooper's life-long fascination with Native Americans. After studying art at Washington University, Cooper made his own explorations through western territories, living with Indians and recording his experiences in drawings and paintings. He spent two years in Boulder, Colorado drawing for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, and making easel paintings of Indian subjects and western landscapes. At age 24, Cooper moved to San Francisco and adopted the life of a bohemian artist, setting up his first studio in the city's Latin Quarter. His reputation grew quickly and by the early 1880s he was selling his paintings in the eastern United States and in Europe. Cooper moved to San Jose, California in 1883, eventually building an elaborate studio in the Egyptian style. His contemporaries considered him one of the most important artists in California and his paintings were purchased or commissioned by members of the California aristocracy, including Mrs. Leland Stanford. Cooper's canvases commanded high prices, and one large canvas, Trilby, named after a DuMaurier novel, is said to have sold for $62,000 in the 1890s. Throughout his career Cooper painted scenes of the frontier and Native life, especially Plains Indian encampments and buffalo hunts. He decried Federal policies toward the Indians and, like many artists of the time, he felt an urgency to capture the ways of a "vanishing race." However, Cooper's paintings were by no means literal documents of specific people and places. They were highly romanticized generic images intended to elicit favorable emotions about the "noble Indian." Cooper heightened the romantic mood with dramatic shadows and heavy, dark atmospheric effects that often obscured the background (and sometimes the foreground) of the view, focusing attention on the carefully drawn subjects while downplaying their context. His technique was similar to tonalism, but most of his paintings cannot be classed as such because they are often full of movement and activity. In his later years, Cooper increasingly painted landscapes, allegories, and historical subjects. His brushwork loosened, and some of the allegorical paintings, in particular, have an impressionist quality. Cooper was notorious bon vivant and his penchant for drinking and carousing raised eyebrows among the social class that purchased his work. It was said that he paid many bar bills with paintings of nude women, and many establishments in the area featured one or more of his canvases. He also was known as an exceptionally generous, polite and cultured man with an aristocratic bearing. Cooper was married for the first and only time in 1919 at age 62 to the daughter of a family friend who was 26 years his junior.
A.D.M. Cooper (American, 1856-1924), Landscape with Figure, oil on canvas, signed lower right, sight: 19"h x 17.5"w, overall (with frame): 26"h x 23.5"w
Astley David Middleton (ADM) Cooper (American, 1856-1924), Untitled (Lion and Tiger), oil on canvas, signed lower right, canvas (unframed): 45.75"h x 31"w
**First Time At Auction** Astley David Middleton (A.D.M.) Cooper (American, 1856-1924). "The Burning Arrow" or "Flaming Arrow" chromolithograph, 1904. An original, antique chromolithograph of "Burning Arrow" (aka "Flaming Arrow") - one of A.D.M. Cooper's most famous paintings. Cooper is best known for his depictions of indigenous peoples with whom he lived in the American West when he was in his early twenties. "Burning Arrow" depicts a group of warriors using a flaming arrow to signal their movements to a distant Indian camp during the Great Sioux War (also called The Black Hills War and known for the famous Battle of Little Big Horn) of 1876 to 1877. Starting at the top and in clockwise order, the figures depicted are as follows: Bull Head (son of Sitting Bull) is the man firing the arrow; Chief Hard Heart is standing with his back to the fire; Sitting Bear is on the ground sitting watching the arrow in flight; Lone Wolf, Buffalo Head, Standing Bear, and two unnamed Indians in the background are also depicted. A remarkable, large-scale, original antique chromolithograph that likely took months to create given its extensive composition and coloration - mounted in an exceptional frame that was artistically designed with carefully selected, museum-quality materials. Size (sight view): 19" L x 25.5" W (48.3 cm x 64.8 cm) Size (frame): 32.625" L x 38.875" W (82.9 cm x 98.7 cm) A.D.M. Cooper objected to the American Indian Wars and was greatly respected by the indigenous peoples. Cooper exhibited "Burning Arrow" at H.A. Meldrum Company's Free Art Gallery at the Pan American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York. Cooper's models for this painting included six prominent Sioux Indians who participated at the Indian Congress at the Midway at the Pan Am Expo in addition to two other Sioux Indians. Starting at the top and in clockwise order: Bull Head (son of Sitting Bull) is the man firing the arrow; Chief Hard Heart is standing with his back to the fire; Sitting Bear is on the ground sitting watching the arrow in flight; Lone Wolf, Buffalo Head, Standing Bear, and two unnamed Indians in the background are also depicted. Interestingly, Cooper first exhibited his 9' x 12' painting of "Burning Arrow" at the Exhibition Hall of the Emporium and Golden Rule Bazaar in San Francisco beginning on January 31, 1900. According to the advertisement in the "The San Francisco Call" newspaper on that date: "'The Burning Arrow'a realistic painting of an episode of the Sioux-Custer war, by A.D.M. Cooper, a well-known painter of Indian pictureson free exhibition to-day and until further notice in Exhibition Hall, second floor. The canvas is 9x12 feet in size. Aside from its artistic merits, it will be of special interest to every boy and girl who is studying the history of this country." Chromolithography was invented by lithographers as a means of printing on flat surfaces by using chemicals instead of relief or intaglio printing. A chromolithograph like this one took months to produce, depending on the number of colors in the image. Provenance: private Colorado Collection; Private Collection of a Private Colorado Family All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience. #176982
ASTLEY DAVID MIDDLETON COOPER (American 1856 - 1924) Yosemite Falls and Riverscape - a pair of paintings Oil on canvas in grisaille Both signed lower left Each measuring 50 inches x 30 inches and contained in matching black painted wood frames SHIPPING NOTICE: Jackson's is your sole and only source for one stop packing and shipping. With over 50 years of experience, our professional, affordable and efficient in-house shipping department will be happy to provide you a fair and reasonable shipping quote on this lot. Simply email us before the auction for a quick quote: shipping@jacksonsauction.com or call 1-800-665-6743. Jackson's can expertly pack and ship to meet any of your needs. To ensure quality control Jackson's DOES NOT release to third party shippers.
ASTLEY DAVID MIDDLETON COOPER (California/Missouri, 1856-1924) oil on canvas, "Alviso Slough, Cal." Landscape near San Jose. Signed "David Middleton" lower left, 17" x 34" (sight), in a period gilt wood and gesso frame, 24.5" x 41.5" (frame).
Astley David Middleton Cooper (American, 1856-1924), Untitled (Winter Landscape with Buffalo), 1898, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, canvas: 42"h x 70"w, overall (with frame): 52"h x 80"w
Astley David Middleton Cooper (American, 1856-1924) oil on canvas depicting a reclining semi-nude beauty bedecked in a jeweled headpiece, arm cuffs, and bracelets, wearing teal Grecian lace-up sandals, covered with rose flowers, a cheetah animal print blanket, and lounging upon a tiger skin rug, signed "A D M Cooper" and dated "1922" to lower left, housed in a giltwood frame with laurel leaf border. Canvas: 20.25" H x 40.25" W; frame: 35.5" H x 53.25" W x 4.5" D.
Astley David Middleton Cooper (1856-1924 California) 'Why So Afraid' Oil on Canvas, 1906. An impressive large canvas depicting circus lion and tabby cat. Signed and dated lower left; titled on verso. Canvas measures 29x46'' and is framed in period oak frame with overall measurements of 39x56''. Some minor frame rubbing to lower corners. Overall very good condition.
A D M Cooper 1912 California Lake Scene w Heron. Astley David Middleton Cooper (American 1856-1924). Signed and dated oil. Provenance: Dr. Arnold Werschky. At the age of 24, Cooper arrived in San Francisco, where he assumed the pose of a Bohemian artist on the city's Barbary Coast. Local legend has it that Cooper paid many a bar tab with one of his paintings. It was a rare drinking establishment from San Francisco to Santa Cruz that didn't have a Cooper nude hanging from its walls. At least one local bar, the Louvre, was said to have dozens of Cooper's paintings on display. Using broad brush strokes and dark backgrounds, Cooper often imparted somber moods to his paintings, even to the point of being macabre. Unlike the tonalists, however, he infused his works with action and drama, and an underlying political commentary. For Cooper, Indians and buffaloes were symbols of a great American tragedy. Throughout his life, he portrayed their passing as paradise lost. Overall Size: 13 1/2 x 20 3/4 in. Sight Size: 8 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.
Astley David Middleton (A. D. M.) Cooper (American, 1856-1924), "Arabian Girl," 1893, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, title placard affixed lower center, canvas: 50"h x 30"w, overall (with frame): 58.75"h x 38.75"w. Provenance: Private Collection (Northern California).
Astley David Middleton (A. D. M.) Cooper (American, 1856-1924), "Arabian Girl," 1893, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, title placard affixed lower center, canvas: 50"h x 30"w, overall (with frame): 58.75"h x 38.75"w. Provenance: Private Collection (Northern California).
ASTLEY DAVID MIDDLETON COOPER (AMERICAN, 1856-1924) Oil on canvas, signed and dated 1924 lower left. Trompe l'oeil rendering of a landscape painting featuring the silhouette of a lion with a portrait of a gypsy woman and roses resting in the foreground. A. D. M. Cooper About the Artist: Native of St. Louis, Missouri, born to David Middleton Cooper a prominent physician and Fannie Clark O'Fallon, grand-niece of explorer William Clark. George Catlin, the early painter of Plains Indian lifestyle, was friend of the family and influencer of Cooper's work. After studying art at Washington University in St. Louis, he spent two years Boulder, Colorado drawing for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. Set up studio in Latin Quarter of San Francisco and garnered much attention by the early 1880s. Later heading south to San Jose, where his peers considered him one of the most important artists in California and was regularly commissioned by aristocracy and socialites. Living a Bohemian lifestyle, Cooper painted his way through life. Stretcher: 20" height, 24" width, frame: 29" height, 33.25" width, 3" depth
Astley David Middleton (A.D.M.) Cooper (1856-1924, San Jose, CA) Native American wearing a headdress, 1913 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left: A.D.M. Cooper 18" H x 16" W
Astley David Middleton (A. D. M.) Cooper (American, 1856-1924), "Scott's Creek, Santa Cruz, Calif (California)," c. 1893, oil on canvas, signed and dated indistinctly lower right, title inscribed verso, canvas: 48.5"h x 24"w, overall (with frame): 57"h x 32.75"w. Provenance: Private Collection (Northern California).
Astley David Middleton (A. D. M.) Cooper (American, 1856-1924), "Arabian Girl," 1893, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left, title placard affixed lower center, canvas: 50"h x 30"w, overall (with frame): 58.75"h x 38.75"w. Provenance: Private Collection (Northern California).
Astley David Middleton Cooper (1856-1924 Missouri) ''Indian Encampment'' Oil on Canvas over Board. 17''x34'' Image. An early painting of natives and teepees. Signed 'David Middleton' l.l. Period gilt frame with artist name plate at lower center 22.5''x39.5''. Very good condition with some craquelure throughout.
Astley David Middleton Cooper (1856-1924, San Jose, CA) Man walking down a hillside path, 1911 Oil on canvas laid to waxed canvas Signed and dated lower left: David Middleton 22" H x 29" W
Astley David Middleton (A.D.M.) Cooper (American, 1856-1924), Seminole Country, oil on canvas, signed lower left, canvas: 14"h x 17"w, overall (with frame): 19"h x 22"w. Provenance: Private Collection (Northern California).
Attr. Astley David Middleton Cooper (California, Missouri, 1856 - 1924) Large oil on canvas painting of buffalo in a western American landscape. Possibly, the Grand Tetons. Appears to be unsigned. Sight Size: 24.5 x 49 in. Overall Framed Size: 28 x 52 in.
Painting: Attributed to Astley David Middleton Cooper (1856-1924), Native American encampment. Oil on panel. Oil on panel. 11" x 18", overall 16" x 22 22".
ARTIST: Astley David Middleton Cooper (California, Missouri, 1856 - 1924) NAME: Landscape MEDIUM: oil on canvas CONDITION: Few minor paint losses along edges. No visible inpaint under UV light. SIGHT SIZE: 22 x 36 inches / 55 x 91 cm FRAME SIZE: unframed SIGNATURE: lower right NAME VARIANTS: A D M Cooper, ADM Cooper SIMILAR ARTISTS: Arthur Best, John Englehart, Charles Henry Harmon, William Constable Adam, Christian August Jorgensen, James Everett Stuart, Nels Hagerup, Henry Percy Gray, Harry Best, Ralph William Holmes, Cleveland Salter Rockwell, Cornelius Botke, Lillie May Nicholson, Joseph Dwight Strong Jr, George Demont Otis, Frederick Schafer, Carl Sammons CATEGORY: antique vintage painting AD: ART CONSIGNMENTS WANTED. CONTACT US SKU#: 117584 US Shipping $120 + insurance. BIOGRAPHY: Ashley David Cooper was a famous San Jose, California artist and bon vivant, who chronicled the passing of the frontier with canvases of grand style. He thumbed his nose at upper crust society and, leading a Bohemian life style, paid his bar bills with his paintings of nudes. Many years after his death, he remains a legendary local figure, whose reputation for Bohemian excess outstrips his artistic achievements, which included more than 1000 paintings during his lifetime.In the spring of 1898, Jane Stanford, wife of railroad magnate Leland Stanford, commissioned Cooper to paint a still-life study of her large collection of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires which she planned to auction off to raise money for Stanford University Library. She wanted this record for posterity. She also wanted Cooper to conform to her behavior code.Notoriously proper and aristocratic, not to mention a staunch advocate of temperance, Stanford demanded that Cooper dress in formal attire and refrain from drink while he accomplished his task. Irked by her pretensions, Cooper stormed out of the Stanford mansion before completing his work. Back in his studio, he precisely added the final touches to the painting from memory, then placed his study in the window of a downtown San Jose saloon for public view.Upon learning of Cooper's indecorous gesture, Stanford ordered her driver down the peninsula to retrieve the painting, which was then prominently displayed in the Leland Stanford Room of the Stanford Museum. "What a sad thing," Lady Stanford reportedly opined about Cooper. "All that talent--dulled by John Barleycorn."By the time of his imbroglio with Jane Stanford, A.D.M. Cooper had already achieved an international reputation for his grand and romantic renderings of American Indians, buffalo herds and frontiersmen--as well as his idealized portraits of partially clad young women. That Cooper's talents had been "dulled by John Barleycorn" remains open to debate, but he was most certainly an incorrigible carouser and lover of the night life, often to the consternation of San Jose's more polite society circles."Of the 16,000 artists I've chronicled," declares Edan Hughes, author of the definitive reference book, ARTISTS IN CALIFORNIA 1786-1940, "none was as colorful as Astley David Middleton Cooper. That man knew how to live. He was a true Bohemian, and he loved to have a good time. He knew how to party. And paint. And then party some more. He had a zest for life unmatched in the artistic annals of California."Named after a fabled British scientist, Astley D.M. Cooper was born on December 23, 1856, in St. Louis, Missouri, then the gateway to the American West. His father, David Middleton Cooper, was a prominent Irish-born physician, while his mother, the former Fannie Clark O'Fallon, was the daughter of Major Benjamin O'Fallon, a well-known figure in the American Indian wars, and a grandniece of the legendary Louisiana Territory explorer William Clark.The O'Fallons, Clarks and Coopers counted among their friends George Catlin, the most regaled painter of American Indians in the 19th century. Between 1830 and 1836, Catlin became so intimate with certain Native American tribes that he was one of the first--and only--European Americans to witness what he describes as sacred sexual and warrior rituals. The young Cooper was fascinated by the stories and paintings of Catlin, who would hold a lifetime influence on his talented protege.Cooper attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied European art and showed early promise in portraiture and landscape drawing.At the age of 20, before completing his degree, he embarked on a journey through the West that saw him follow in the footsteps of his mentor Catlin. He lived with Indian tribes throughout the region, earning their respect; and him, theirs. He viewed the war being waged against them by the U.S. government as a terrible tragedy, and could never shake off the events such as the Battle of the Little Big Horn, which took place in 1876 while Cooper was still on his journey..Settling down for a two-year stint in Boulder, Colo., Cooper took a position as an illustrator for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and soon achieved national attention for his depictions of American Indians and frontier landscapes. His life as an artist was cast.At the age of 24, Cooper arrived in San Francisco, where he assumed the pose of a Bohemian artist on the city's Barbary Coast. Establishing his first studio in the city's Latin Quarter, his reputation continued to soar, and he was commissioned to paint an official portrait of President Ulysses S. Grant. By the early 1880s, his paintings were being marketed throughout the United States and Europe.In 1883, his ability to make a living secured, Cooper decided to move south to the agriculturally rich Santa Clara Valley, settling into a home at 250 S. 19th Street in East San Jose. His widowed mother eventually followed him. Cooper assimilated into the cultural life of his burgeoning adopted city.By most accounts, Cooper took San Jose by storm. Handsome, debonair and charming, he was also a renowned ladies' man when he first arrived and a frequent imbiber at local saloons. Local legend has it that Cooper paid many a bar tab with one of his paintings. It was a rare drinking establishment from San Francisco to Santa Cruz that didn't have a Cooper nude hanging from its walls. At least one local bar, the Louvre, was said to have dozens of Cooper's paintings on display.Cooper was an accomplished violinist and occasionally sat in with local orchestras. According to Clyde Arbuckle's History of San Jose, he often invited visiting vaudeville troupes and opera singers to his home for after-hour performances and raucous parties.All the while Cooper maintained a furious painting schedule. He was never a "struggling artist." He commanded a high income throughout his life, during which he completed more than a thousand paintings. One of his works, "Trilby," named after a 19th-century novel by George DuMaurier--reportedly sold for $62,000 in the 1890s, while another, "The Story of the Evil Spirits," sold for $20,000, both extraordinarily high prices for their day. He expanded his repertoire beyond the Western genre scenes that made him famous to include classical allegories, religious and historical depictions, portraits, and landscapes.Cooper's early compositions were representational and linear, much like Catlin's. In the mature stages of his career, he frequently invoked a more impressionistic style that hinted at the tonalism of painters like James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Arthur Davies.Using broad brush strokes and dark backgrounds, Cooper often imparted somber moods to his paintings, even to the point of being macabre. Unlike the tonalists, however, he infused his works with action and drama, and an underlying political commentary. For Cooper, Indians and buffaloes were symbols of a great American tragedy. Throughout his life, he portrayed their passing as paradise lost.Although Cooper was a contemporary of California painters like William Keith, Arthur Matthews and Xavier Martinez, he seems never to have been a part of the so-called California Movement, which flourished in the decades straddling the turn of the century. He was rarely mentioned in California art books of the time, and is rarely included in contemporary exhibitions of the genre.
Astley David Middleton (A.D.M.) Cooper (1856-1924, San Jose, CA) Native American chief with pipe Oil on canvas laid to waxed canvas Signed lower left: A.D.M. Cooper 20" H x 16" W Provenance: Private Collection San Mateo, CA
ARTIST: Astley David Middleton Cooper (California, Missouri, 1856 - 1924) NAME: Landscape MEDIUM: oil on canvas CONDITION: Few minor paint losses along edges. No visible inpaint under UV light. SIGHT SIZE: 22 x 36 inches / 55 x 91 cm FRAME SIZE: unframed SIGNATURE: lower right NAME VARIANTS: A D M Cooper, ADM Cooper SIMILAR ARTISTS: Arthur Best, John Englehart, Charles Henry Harmon, William Constable Adam, Christian August Jorgensen, James Everett Stuart, Nels Hagerup, Henry Percy Gray, Harry Best, Ralph William Holmes, Cleveland Salter Rockwell, Cornelius Botke, Lillie May Nicholson, Joseph Dwight Strong Jr, George Demont Otis, Frederick Schafer, Carl Sammons CATEGORY: antique vintage painting AD: ART CONSIGNMENTS WANTED. CONTACT US SKU#: 117584 US Shipping $120 + insurance. BIOGRAPHY: Ashley David Cooper was a famous San Jose, California artist and bon vivant, who chronicled the passing of the frontier with canvases of grand style. He thumbed his nose at upper crust society and, leading a Bohemian life style, paid his bar bills with his paintings of nudes. Many years after his death, he remains a legendary local figure, whose reputation for Bohemian excess outstrips his artistic achievements, which included more than 1000 paintings during his lifetime.In the spring of 1898, Jane Stanford, wife of railroad magnate Leland Stanford, commissioned Cooper to paint a still-life study of her large collection of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires which she planned to auction off to raise money for Stanford University Library. She wanted this record for posterity. She also wanted Cooper to conform to her behavior code.Notoriously proper and aristocratic, not to mention a staunch advocate of temperance, Stanford demanded that Cooper dress in formal attire and refrain from drink while he accomplished his task. Irked by her pretensions, Cooper stormed out of the Stanford mansion before completing his work. Back in his studio, he precisely added the final touches to the painting from memory, then placed his study in the window of a downtown San Jose saloon for public view.Upon learning of Cooper's indecorous gesture, Stanford ordered her driver down the peninsula to retrieve the painting, which was then prominently displayed in the Leland Stanford Room of the Stanford Museum. "What a sad thing," Lady Stanford reportedly opined about Cooper. "All that talent--dulled by John Barleycorn."By the time of his imbroglio with Jane Stanford, A.D.M. Cooper had already achieved an international reputation for his grand and romantic renderings of American Indians, buffalo herds and frontiersmen--as well as his idealized portraits of partially clad young women. That Cooper's talents had been "dulled by John Barleycorn" remains open to debate, but he was most certainly an incorrigible carouser and lover of the night life, often to the consternation of San Jose's more polite society circles."Of the 16,000 artists I've chronicled," declares Edan Hughes, author of the definitive reference book, ARTISTS IN CALIFORNIA 1786-1940, "none was as colorful as Astley David Middleton Cooper. That man knew how to live. He was a true Bohemian, and he loved to have a good time. He knew how to party. And paint. And then party some more. He had a zest for life unmatched in the artistic annals of California."Named after a fabled British scientist, Astley D.M. Cooper was born on December 23, 1856, in St. Louis, Missouri, then the gateway to the American West. His father, David Middleton Cooper, was a prominent Irish-born physician, while his mother, the former Fannie Clark O'Fallon, was the daughter of Major Benjamin O'Fallon, a well-known figure in the American Indian wars, and a grandniece of the legendary Louisiana Territory explorer William Clark.The O'Fallons, Clarks and Coopers counted among their friends George Catlin, the most regaled painter of American Indians in the 19th century. Between 1830 and 1836, Catlin became so intimate with certain Native American tribes that he was one of the first--and only--European Americans to witness what he describes as sacred sexual and warrior rituals. The young Cooper was fascinated by the stories and paintings of Catlin, who would hold a lifetime influence on his talented protege.Cooper attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied European art and showed early promise in portraiture and landscape drawing.At the age of 20, before completing his degree, he embarked on a journey through the West that saw him follow in the footsteps of his mentor Catlin. He lived with Indian tribes throughout the region, earning their respect; and him, theirs. He viewed the war being waged against them by the U.S. government as a terrible tragedy, and could never shake off the events such as the Battle of the Little Big Horn, which took place in 1876 while Cooper was still on his journey..Settling down for a two-year stint in Boulder, Colo., Cooper took a position as an illustrator for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and soon achieved national attention for his depictions of American Indians and frontier landscapes. His life as an artist was cast.At the age of 24, Cooper arrived in San Francisco, where he assumed the pose of a Bohemian artist on the city's Barbary Coast. Establishing his first studio in the city's Latin Quarter, his reputation continued to soar, and he was commissioned to paint an official portrait of President Ulysses S. Grant. By the early 1880s, his paintings were being marketed throughout the United States and Europe.In 1883, his ability to make a living secured, Cooper decided to move south to the agriculturally rich Santa Clara Valley, settling into a home at 250 S. 19th Street in East San Jose. His widowed mother eventually followed him. Cooper assimilated into the cultural life of his burgeoning adopted city.By most accounts, Cooper took San Jose by storm. Handsome, debonair and charming, he was also a renowned ladies' man when he first arrived and a frequent imbiber at local saloons. Local legend has it that Cooper paid many a bar tab with one of his paintings. It was a rare drinking establishment from San Francisco to Santa Cruz that didn't have a Cooper nude hanging from its walls. At least one local bar, the Louvre, was said to have dozens of Cooper's paintings on display.Cooper was an accomplished violinist and occasionally sat in with local orchestras. According to Clyde Arbuckle's History of San Jose, he often invited visiting vaudeville troupes and opera singers to his home for after-hour performances and raucous parties.All the while Cooper maintained a furious painting schedule. He was never a "struggling artist." He commanded a high income throughout his life, during which he completed more than a thousand paintings. One of his works, "Trilby," named after a 19th-century novel by George DuMaurier--reportedly sold for $62,000 in the 1890s, while another, "The Story of the Evil Spirits," sold for $20,000, both extraordinarily high prices for their day. He expanded his repertoire beyond the Western genre scenes that made him famous to include classical allegories, religious and historical depictions, portraits, and landscapes.Cooper's early compositions were representational and linear, much like Catlin's. In the mature stages of his career, he frequently invoked a more impressionistic style that hinted at the tonalism of painters like James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Arthur Davies.Using broad brush strokes and dark backgrounds, Cooper often imparted somber moods to his paintings, even to the point of being macabre. Unlike the tonalists, however, he infused his works with action and drama, and an underlying political commentary. For Cooper, Indians and buffaloes were symbols of a great American tragedy. Throughout his life, he portrayed their passing as paradise lost.Although Cooper was a contemporary of California painters like William Keith, Arthur Matthews and Xavier Martinez, he seems never to have been a part of the so-called California Movement, which flourished in the decades straddling the turn of the century. He was rarely mentioned in California art books of the time, and is rarely included in contemporary exhibitions of the genre.
