Thomas Sidney Cooper, an English painter, born in Canterbury, Sept. 26, 1803. He early developed a talent for drawing, and was accustomed to sketch from nature without instruction. At the age of 17 he became scene painter to the Canterbury theatre, and during the next seven years he supported himself by scene painting and teaching drawing. In 1827 he visited the continent and settled in Brussels, where he married, and for several years derived a comfortable support from teaching and the proceeds of his pencil drawings. He made the acquaintance of Verboeckhoven, the Belgian animal painter, whose example strongly influenced him in devoting himself thereafter to landscape and animal painting. In 1830 he returned to England, and devoted several years to careful study from nature. His first picture, exhibited in 1833, attracted so much attention that he was commissioned to execute the noted landscape painting which is now in the Vernon gallery. This was the foundation of his subsequent success as an animal painter, in which department he attained a high place, and in 1845 was elected an associate of the royal academy. He excels in groups of oxen, cows, sheep, or goats, the landscape backgrounds to which are subdued in tone, though in perfect keeping with the general character of the composition.

For many years he painted in conjunction with F. R. Lee, who supplied the landscape.