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William Heaton Cooper was the son of the landscape artist Alfred Heaton Cooper, of Bolton,
Lancashire and his wife Mathilde, from Norway, and was born at Coniston,
in October 1903.
William aspired to follow in his father's footsteps as a landscape artist. He studied at the Royal Academy School in London and subsequently exhibited there. |
He also became an authority on the lore and landscape of the Lake District, and wrote several books illustrated with his water colour pictures of the lakes, tarns and mountains.
He was elected in 1953 to membership of the Royal Institute of British Watercolourists and was for eleven years president of the Lake Artists Society.
When his father died, he took over the studio in Ambleside which his father had built. His painting continued to improve, so much so that he soon eclipsed the reputation of his father. A decision was taken to move the studio business to Grasmere and the building of a home and studio there began in 1938. In the same year he met the sculptress, Ophelia Gordon Bell, who later became his wife.
William died in 1995 and is buried in Grasmere. One of his two sons, Julian, continues the family tradition as an artist while the other, John, manages the Heaton Cooper Studio business.
For more information about the studio, and more extensive biographies of William and Alfred, see 'www.heatoncooper.co.uk'. The above is a summary of that biography, used with permission.
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