A patron and scholar of Cubism, Douglas Cooper was born in London in 1911. He was the eldest of three children of Mabel and Arthur Cooper, who lived on Eaton Place. His family had made a fortune in Australia through real estate and shipping. At thirteen, Cooper met Mrs. Samuel Courtauld, wife of the English textile millionaire who possessed Britain’s greatest collection of Impressionist works, including Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. Thirty years later, Cooper wrote the introduction for the collection’s catalogue, noting this early experience defined his career. He studied languages at Cambridge and art history in Paris and Germany.
