Colin Campbell Cooper (1856-1937), born in Philadelphia­the "Athens of America," was greatly influenced by Monet and painted in an Impressionist style. Encouraged by his parents, Cooper studied at the Pennsylvania academy of Fine Arts where he was taught by Thomas Eakins. In 1886, Cooper ventured on the first of a lifetime of travels to Europe. There he discovered an unending fascination with architecture and studied at the French Art Academies of Julian, Delocalize and Vita. Over his career, Cooper sketched and journeyed through Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, India, Ceylon, Burma, Chicago, and the East and West Coasts of the United States.

America was as challenging to paint for Cooper as any exotic country. In fact, he received his most critical acclaim for his American cityscapes and a new, purely American subject­the skyscraper. From 1895-98, he taught at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. An exhibition of his work in the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition brought him to San Francisco, and he spent the following winter of 1915-16 in Los Angeles. After the death of his first wife in 1920, Cooper settled in Santa Barbara and became Dean of the School of Painting at the Santa Barbara School for the Arts.

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