American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists Featuring the Papageorge Family Collection

Note

Colin Campbell Copper and his wife Emma traveled extensively during their lives, first throughout Europe in the early years of their marriage, and later to California. The artist's most spectacular trip was probably the one he took to Asia, and especially to India in the Fall of 1913 via the Suez Canal, until the Spring of the following year. Cooper's journey was most likely inspired by Edwin Lord Weeks' Eastern adventures–the most famous American Orientalist painter celebrated for his exotic and enchanting views of Indian markets, street scenes and luxurious palaces. Judging from the scale of the buildings surrounding the river steps, the present work was likely painted in late January 1914, when the couple travelled from India to Burma and spent several days sketching the local structures and pagodas, especially the Scwe Dagon Pagoda - the most revered Buddhist reliquary in Yangon, now Myanmar. This little gem reveals Cooper's newfound playful exploration of bright light and a new appreciation for vivid colors unseen out West, and that echo the rich and exotic culture of the Far East.