Astley David Middleton Cooper (1856-1924)
Landscape with Man on a Path, circa 1900

20"x18" oil on canvas, signed lower right

condition:  very good original condition with moderate crazing throughout.

Astley David Middleton Cooper was born in St Louis, Missouri on December 22, 1856, the son of Fannie Clark O’Fallon and Dr. David M. Cooper, an eminent surgeon. At an early age, A. D. M. Cooper was fascinated with the Indian paintings of George Catlin, a close friend of the Cooper family. After attending Washington University, he traveled throughout the West as an illustrator for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. At age twenty he was in the West at the time of the Custer massacre and became famous as a painter of the Old West and Indians. In 1883 he moved to San Jose where he later built a unique studio-home in Egyptian style. There he entertained lavishly. He often invited visiting opera and vaudeville troupes to his home for after-hours raucous parties. In his more lucid moments, Cooper was capable of producing masterpieces; however, due to his heavy drinking the quality of his work varies. He is perhaps the last of the Western painters to have experienced the true Old West.