Painter, born in Tettenhall, near Wolverhampton, he attended Bilston
School of Art and the RCA, London from where he graduated in 1911. Cooper
specialised in portraits, figure subjects and landscapes, exhibiting at
the Manchester City Art Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, RA,
Chenil Galleries, GI, RBA, RSA the Paris Salon and elsewhere. He served
in the Artists’ Rifles, 1914-18 during which time the sight in one eye
was impaired by chlorine gas. In 1940 he painted a portrait of George
VI and his portrait of Winston Churchill, painted in 1943, was widely
reproduced. Copper was elected ARBA 1921 and a full member two years
later. His work is in the GAC and the NPG. While still a student,
Cooper entered a competition for which John Singer Sargent was one of
the judges. Impressed by the young Cooper’s work, Sargent invited
Cooper to work with him at his studio in Tite Street, Chelsea which had
belonged to James McNeill Whistler. Cooper was to spend about a year
with Sargent assisting the Master with backgrounds and details for his
paintings. At the end of World War I Cooper was appointed as Official
War Artist to the R.A.F. He became an expert in the art and technique
of large scale aerial camouflage, sketching and painting landscapes
from a variety of aircraft. Some of his related work is in London’s
Imperial War Museum.

With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk