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
Estate of Alan Boxer (2 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Christopher Chapman looks at influences and insight in the formative years of Arthur Boyd.
Patrick McCaughey explores a striking Boyd self portrait.
