"A sheep “Lew”, East Kent. A flock of sheep sheltering from the Summer heat in an open sided thatch barn. A farm beyond. 30 x 42 inches. (76.5 x 107 cm.) Signed (lower right) “T. Sidney Cooper”. Exhibited: 1856, Vernon Holme, the artist’s residence, near Canterbury; 1856, Royal Academy, No.357, as titled. Provenance: Christies. 26 March 1892. Lot 88. 145 guineas to Handcock. Label verso: Frost & Reed Gallery, New Bond Street, London Literature: Kenneth J Westwood, Thomas Sidney Cooper His Life and Work, Somerset, 2011, Vol. I p.278 & Vol. II illustrated p.148. Thomas Sidney Cooper was arguably one of the foremost painters of domestic animals in the history of art. He specialised in depicting domesticated farm animals. He was equally proficient in the use of oil paint and watercolours. A sheep lew (1856) was executed at the peak of Cooper’s painterly powers. His finest work is generally held to be those paintings and watercolours made between c.1840 and c.1875. His works have earned him uninterrupted admiration for quality of detail and colouring and for his exceptional ability to capture the character of his subjects, typically cattle, sheep, donkeys or goats. He was a prolific artist and was a favourite of Queen Victoria who, in recognition of Cooper’s distinguished personal service to the monarch, admitted him as a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO). His work was much sought after by members of the British aristocracy and the nineteenth-century grandees especially the newly rich industrialists and merchants of the midlands and north of England. Contemporary commentators were alive to Cooper’s extraordinary artistic powers: ‘The interior of a shed with sheep has a beautiful and striking effect of sunlight glancing through’ Source: The Kentish Gazette, 25 March 1856. Collections: Tate Gallery, London; Guildhall Art Gallery, and art galleries in Leicester, Harrogate, Sheffield, Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester and York. A comprehensive collection of his work is held at the Sidney Cooper Art Gallery, Canterbury, the artist’s native city. "