Artist

William Couper

born Norfolk, VA 1853-died Easton, MD 1942
Media - couper_william.jpg - 89970
Courtesy William Couper and Couper Family Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Born
Norfolk, Virginia, United States
Died
Easton, Maryland, United States
Active in
  • Florence, Italy
  • New York, New York, United States
Biography

William Couper was born in Norfolk, Virginia, where his father owned a profitable stoneworks. As a boy, William played in the marble lots watching artisans make statues. He decided to become a sculptor and trained in New York City, Munich, and in Florence, where he made portraits and idealized busts. He married and started a family in Italy, but decided to move back to America, where he built a large home in New Jersey and shared a studio in New York City with the sculptor Thomas Ball. Couper retired from sculpting in 1913 and painted seascapes in oil and watercolors until his death.

Works by this artist (1 item)

A. Kinder or Rinder, Drawing on Door, 1887, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Laura Dreyfus Barney and Natalie Clifford Barney in memory of their mother, Alice Pike Barney, 1952.13.82
Drawing on Door
Date1887
oil on canvas
On view