Oil painting, 'Sheep', Thomas Sidney Cooper, 1866

Bequeathed by Sir Erasmus Wilson

Bequeathed by Sir Erasmus Wilson, 1884

Historical significance: Born in Canterbury, Thomas Sidney Cooper (1803-1902) began work as a coach-painter, but learned drawing from a local scene-painter. He was encouraged by Sir Thomas Lawrence and the animal painter Abraham Cooper, and joined the Royal Academy schools in 1823. Cooper subsequently settled in Brussels, where he met and was influenced by the Belgian painter Eugene Verboekhoven, who specialised in a kind of landscape painting based on 17th-century Dutch prototypes by artists such as Paulus Potter and Aelbert Cuyp. Cooper returned from Brussels in 1831, and from 1833 he exhibited regularly at the British Institution and in particular at the Royal Academy, where he exhibited 266 works without a break between 1833 and 1902. He was elected ARA in 1845 and RA in 1867.

Cooper's paintings were almost all of cattle (so much so that he was nicknamed 'Cow' Cooper to distinguish him from Abraham 'Horse' Cooper). He also painted animals in landscapes by other artists.

In 1866, the year it was painted, Cooper presented Sheep to the dermatologist and philanthropist Sir Erasmus Wilson, FRS, who bequeathed it to the museum on his death in 1884.

1293-1886