Skip to main contentBiographyExcerpt from Animal and Sporting Artists in America by F. Turner Reuter, Jr., 2008:
George Cope was born in East Bradford, PA on February 4, 1855. He studied at the Copeland Schools, adjacent to his family farm, and later at the West Chester (PA) Normal School. At the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876 Cope met the landscape painter Hermann Herzog; he began taking lessons in the artist’s Philadelphia studio and accompanying Herzog on sketching and hiking trips in the West Chester countryside. Cope traveled the West for four years starting in 1876, painting landscapes of the Pacific coast, the California mountains, and Native American life. He returned to West Chester where he continued painting landscapes and animal compositions in both PA and NYC. In the late 1880s, Cope began working in the cabin-door still life tradition of depicting hanging game, often with hunting and shooting paraphernalia. This type of trompe l’oeil or ‘fool the eye’ painting was popularized during this period. Cope’s best known work, Buffalo Bill’s Traps, a 7 x 4 foot canvas commissioned by Senator Alfred J. Burke of Philadelphia, and now lost, is an example of this genre. Cope is exhibited for the most part in southeastern PA including at several prominent galleries in Philadelphia. The Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT, the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH and the Chester County Historical Society all hold his works. His work is also exhibited in numerous private collections throughout the United States. Cope died in West Chester, PA on January 15, 1929.
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for George Cope
George Cope
United States, 1855 - 1929
George Cope was born in East Bradford, PA on February 4, 1855. He studied at the Copeland Schools, adjacent to his family farm, and later at the West Chester (PA) Normal School. At the Philadelphia Centennial of 1876 Cope met the landscape painter Hermann Herzog; he began taking lessons in the artist’s Philadelphia studio and accompanying Herzog on sketching and hiking trips in the West Chester countryside. Cope traveled the West for four years starting in 1876, painting landscapes of the Pacific coast, the California mountains, and Native American life. He returned to West Chester where he continued painting landscapes and animal compositions in both PA and NYC. In the late 1880s, Cope began working in the cabin-door still life tradition of depicting hanging game, often with hunting and shooting paraphernalia. This type of trompe l’oeil or ‘fool the eye’ painting was popularized during this period. Cope’s best known work, Buffalo Bill’s Traps, a 7 x 4 foot canvas commissioned by Senator Alfred J. Burke of Philadelphia, and now lost, is an example of this genre. Cope is exhibited for the most part in southeastern PA including at several prominent galleries in Philadelphia. The Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT, the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, PA, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH and the Chester County Historical Society all hold his works. His work is also exhibited in numerous private collections throughout the United States. Cope died in West Chester, PA on January 15, 1929.
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