Richard Cooper II

Richard Cooper’s view of ruins near Tivoli is decidedly generalized, relying heavily on the compositional formulae established by 17th-century artists Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. Like his predecessors, he presents the landscape as a perfect harmony of forms within the rectangle of the picture frame. Yet true to his own century, Cooper is sure to identify his scene-albeit vaguely-with the many actual ruins tourists encountered on their way to Tivoli. Cooper used his brush like a pencil, modeling his forms with hatched lines as opposed to brushing on color in fluid washes.