Alfred Heaton Cooper (1863–1929) was an English watercolour artist. He is known for his landscapes of the English
Lake District and Norway, and for illustrating several travel guidebooks.
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Life and work
Cooper was born in Halliwell, Bolton, Lancashire, England - one of six children to millworker parents - and brought up in the same place. After leaving school, he worked as a clerk but moved to London in 1884 to study art under
George Clausen. He finished his studies prematurely to embark on a period of travelling, first north to
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
, then abroad to
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
and finally settling in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
. Whilst in Norway, he became fascinated by the rural lifestyle of the
Sogne region, where he eventually set up a studio beside the fjord at
Balestrand. There, he married Mathilde.
After realising that he could not make a living in the area, he returned in 1894 to Bolton, moving eventually to the
Lake District where he believed there was a market for his work amongst visiting tourists. He shipped his log cabin studio from Norway to
Coniston and later to
Ambleside
Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England.
Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern headwater) of Windermere, England's larges ...
. In 1903, Mathilde gave birth to
William Heaton Cooper, who would also go on to become a landscape artist.
Apart from his watercolours of the Lake District, and scenes of Norwegian fjords (especially Balestrand), Cooper also provided illustrations for several travel guidebooks published by
A & C Black.
List of books written or illustrated by Alfred Heaton Cooper
(heatoncooper.co.uk)
He died in the Lake District in 1929. The family business he founded still exists today as an art gallery and shop, the Heaton Cooper Studio, in Grasmere, Cumbria.
Selected Books illustrated by Heaton Cooper
*W. T. Palmer
The English Lakes
' (A & C Black, 1905).
*A. R. Hope Moncrieff.
The Isle of Wight
' (A & C Black, 1908)
* G. E. Mitton.
The Isle of Wight
' (A. & C. Black, 1911).
*F. J. Mathew.
Ireland
' (A. & C. Black, 1916).
*W. G. Clark.
Norfolk & Suffolk
' (A & C Black, 1921).
*Mackenzie Macbride.
Wild lakeland
' (A & C Black, 1922).
Notes
External links
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Heaton Cooper Studios
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heaton Cooper, Alfred
19th-century English painters
English male painters
20th-century English painters
English illustrators
People from Bolton
Artists from Greater Manchester
1864 births
1929 deaths
English watercolourists
19th-century English male artists
People from Grasmere (village)
20th-century English male artists