Two Sheep

According to a note on the back, Cooper painted this when he was 14 years of age. He trained at the Royal Academy Schools from 1823 and subsequently moved to Brussels, where he met Eugène Verboeckhoven (1798 - 1881) who introduced him to the work of 17th-century Dutch animal painters, such as Aelbert Cuyp (1620 - 1691) and Paulus Potter (1625 - 1654). Following this meeting, Cooper began to specialise in paintings of cattle and sheep.