Eileen Cooper Prints and Multiples

Eileen Cooper’s paintings and woodcut prints are dreamy and humorous, with a man giving a woman a foot rub or a woman tenderly cradling a rabbit. 

While British figurative art has a reputation for trending toward the dour, the dark or the tortured — think Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Francis Bacon — in Cooper’s world, a couple drifts happily on a sea of love; sisters embrace; and cats, bears, and foxes show up as benign companions.

Cooper has said that she has a head full of stories: “Mythology, fairy tales, Bible stories, fables and early special-effects movies — they’re all part of my work even if it’s not obvious. I always try to look spontaneous.”

Alongside her artistic practice, Cooper has maintained a teaching career at institutions including Central Saint Martins, the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools.

Cooper became an Academician and Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools in 2010 (the first woman Keeper since the RA’s founding, in 1768), and in 2016, she was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to art and art education.

Find original Eileen Cooper art on 1stDibs.