John Copley

(1875-1950)

 Painter and printmaker, born in Manchester.  Studied at the University there, then at the School of Art; at the Cope and Nichol School of Art; then at the RA Schools.  Married to the artist Ethel Gabain.  Travelled extensively in Italy.  Exhibited extensively at Cooling Galleries, Goupil Gallery and RBA, also with NS, NEAC and abroad.  Became honorary secretary of the Senefelder Club, 1910-16, only three years after taking up lithography, for which he won principal awards at an international exhibition at Chicago Art Institute in 1930.  Was an honorary foreign member of Pulchri Studio, in The Hague, British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, provincial and foreign galleries hold his work.  In 1985 Garton & Cooke put on a show of prints by Copley and his wife; in 1990 the Yale Centre for British Art, in America, and Agnew both staged exhibitions by Copley. Semi-reclusive and a semi-invalid, Copley lived in London.

RBA - Royal Society of British Artists

NS - National Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers/Printmakers

NEAC - New English Art Club