Although Arthur Boyd AC OBE is widely recognised for his landscapes
and mythical subjects, and produced relatively few portraits, he made a
number of paintings of family and friends, all redolent of his interest
in deep human truths. In the background of this portrait of Carl Cooper (1912–1966), under a lowering sky,
appear motifs characteristic of Boyd’s work: a flying creature and
denuded trees. This psychologically intense painting conveys Cooper’s
deep mental and physical discomfort.
Cooper studied at the East Sydney Technical College and the Royal
College of Art in London. He contracted poliomyelitis in his twenties
and lost the use of his legs. In hospital he met the artist John
Perceval, who introduced him to the Boyd family. Arthur Merric Boyd and
Perceval had opened the AMB pottery near the Boyd family home in
Murrumbeena, just outside Melbourne, in the mid-1940s, where Cooper
began making incised earthenware pieces. Arthur Boyd recollected Cooper
as a ‘dissatisfied, fierce, crushed’ figure, a sentiment he has captured
in this portrait. Cooper eventually set up his own studio, but illness
forced him to cease production in 1963.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Bequest of Alan Boxer 2014
© Arthur Boyd
Arthur Boyd's work reproduced with the permission of the Bundanon Trust
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