Emma Lampert Cooper (February 24, 1855 – July 30, 1920) was a painter from Rochester, New York, described as "a painter of exceptional ability".William H. Gerdts. East Coast/West Coast and Beyond: Colin Campbell Cooper, American Impressionist. Hudson Hills; 2006. ., p. 13 She studied in Rochester, New York, in New York City under William Merritt Chase, Paris at the Académie Delécluse and in the Netherlands under Hein Kever. Cooper won awards at several World's Expositions, taught art and was an art director. She met her husband, Colin Campbell Cooper in the Netherlands and the two traveled, painted and exhibited their works together.

Early life Emma Esther Lampert was born in Nunda, New York, on February 24, 1855,Richard H. Love; Carl William Peters. Carl W. Peters: American Scene Painter from Rochester to Rockport. University Rochester Press; 1 January 1999. . p. 91Emma E. Lampert record, passport issued July 3, 1891. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Passport Applications, 1795–1905; Collection Number: ARC Identifier 566612 / MLR Number A1 508; NARA Series: M1372; Roll #: 377. to Henry and Jenette (Smith) Lampert. That year her father – born in Hanover, Germany – was a tanner and two other German tanners and a servant were living in the house with the family. Emma had an older sister name Mary, younger sisters Carrie and Adella, and a younger brother named Henry. The family lived in Rochester, New York and her father was a leather wholesaler by 1870.Emma E. Lampert record, 1855 New York state census. Nunda Village, Livingston, New York. Census of the state of New York, for 1855. Microfilm. New York State Archives, Albany, New York.Emma E. Lampert record, 1870 federal census. 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Her father registered for the draft for the American Civil War in June 1863. He died June 10, 1880.Henry Lampert record, Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889–1970. Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Microfilm, 508 rolls.Henry Lampert record, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General's Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863–1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau (Civil War); Collection Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863–1865 (Civil War Union Draft Records); ARC Identifier: 4213514; Archive Volume Number: 3 of 7.

Education and early career Emma graduated from Wells College in Aurora, NY, in 1875. Classes at that time were very small and college life was centered around Old Main. The students lived in pairs in Old Main. Cooper was a founding member of the eastern association of Wells College Alumni. Her classmates remember Emma as being a fine skater, who once skated across Cayuga Lake. She did it at much surprise and worry of the college staff. Following her skating episode, Emma drove across the lake with a horse and cutter. It was the first time a horse and cutter made it across the lake in Aurora.

1877 The Rochester Club was formed, and Cooper was its vice president, marking the beginning of a long relationship with the club. She held the positions of vice president, secretary, and president and was a member until 1895. From 1870 to 1886, Cooper had a studio in the historic power buildings in Rochester, NY. Within Rochester, she had a "notable influence" on the city's art community. She then returned to New York City to study at the Art Students League and Cooper Union under William Merritt Chase. Cooper studied in Paris at the Académie Delécluse for 18 months in the mid-1880s and under Hein Kever in the Netherlands in 1891.

Educator From 1891 to 1893, Cooper taught painting and was the Art Director at the Clifton Springs, NY, foster school opened between 1876 and 1885. From 1893 to 1897, Cooper taught at the Mechanic's Institute of The Rochester Institute of Technology.

Marriage In 1897, while working and living in Dordrecht, she met painter Colin Campbell Cooper. They married on June 9, 1897, in Rochester, New York. The couple traveled abroad between 1898 and 1902, living in the Laren artist colony in the Netherlands for one year. Then, they primarily lived in New York City, and also traveled extensively to Europe and her hometown, Rochester.William H. Gerdts. East Coast/West Coast and Beyond: Colin Campbell Cooper, American Impressionist. Hudson Hills; 2006. ., pp. 18, 54, 58 They were in India in 1913, reputedly both having been commissioned by a patroness from the United States to create paintings. The works from that trip were exhibited in Rochester, New York in 1915.William H. Gerdts. East Coast/West Coast and Beyond: Colin Campbell Cooper, American Impressionist. Hudson Hills; 2006. . p. 71, 130 Because of her work in the United States and abroad, she was considered knowledgeable of the international art community.

Art works and exhibitions Her subjects were primarily still life and landscapes from her travels. She closed her Rochester studio in 1886 and traveled to Paris. In 1887 she exhibited Hillside at Picardy at the Paris Salon. For her painting Breadwinner, Cooper was given an award at the Chicago's World's Fair in 1893John William Leonard; William Frederick Mohr; Frank R. Holmes. Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company; 1907. p. 329Richard H. Love; Carl William Peters. Carl W. Peters: American Scene Painter from Rochester to Rockport. University Rochester Press; 1 January 1999. . p. 101 and the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in 1895. Cooper was awarded a gold medal at the 1902 American Art Society exhibition in Philadelphia. She exhibited oil and watercolor paintings at the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904 and won a bronze medal for a Weaving HomespunJames H. Lambert, Pennsylvania, Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission. The story of Pennsylvania at the World's Fair St. Louis, 1904. The Pennsylvania Commission; 1905. p. 57, 335, 336. and another bronze medal. Her works were exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1900.Richard H. Love; Carl William Peters. Carl W. Peters: American Scene Painter from Rochester to Rockport. University Rochester Press; 1 January 1999. . p. 111-112 Cooper's paintings were exhibited with her husband' in shows in Rochester, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, and Buffalo between 1902 and 1910.William H. Gerdts. East Coast/West Coast and Beyond: Colin Campbell Cooper, American Impressionist. Hudson Hills; 2006. . p. 62 In 1915 she showed paintings of India alongside works by Alice Schille, Adelaide Deming and Helen Watson Phelps in New York.

Cooper became an artist during the 19th century when there was a significant number of women who became successful, educated artists, a rarity before that time, except for a few like Angelica Kauffman and Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842).Annette Stott. "Floral Femininity: A Pictorial Definition". American Art. The University of Chicago Press. 6: 2 (Spring, 1992). p. 75. The emerging women artists created works with a different perspective than men, challenged the limited concepts of femininity and created a genre of floral-female landscape paintings, in which "the artist placed one woman or more in a flower garden setting and manipulated composition, color, texture and form to make the women look as much like flowers as possible." These artists were among the educated, sophisticated "New Women" beginning in the late 19th century, whose influence was largely ignored by art scholars.

Cooper was a successful landscape painter and academic figure who began as a children's book illustrator and painter of miniatures and flower paintings. Realizing the difficulty in making the transition to a successful painter, particularly of landscape and figure paintings, Cooper warned other women artists of that difficulty. She, however, was able to overcome the obstacles and become successful.

Cooper was a member of the Women's International Art Club in London, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Women's Art Association of Canada. In New York, she was a member of Woman's Art Club, National Arts Club, and the New York Watercolor Club. She was a charter member of the Rochester Art Club and the Philadelphia Water Color Club.

Collections Cooper's paintings are held in private and public collections, including the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester;Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester. Strong Museum in Rochester, New York;Gray Day, Mystic, Connecticut, (painting). Art Inventories Catalog. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieve March 30, 2014. Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina;Life Work. Art Inventories Catalog. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieve March 30, 2014. and Wells College in Aurora, New York.Holy Man's Tomb at Agra, (painting). Art Inventories Catalog. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieve March 30, 2014.

Carpathia The couple was among the first class passengers on the Cunard liner en route from New York to Gibraltar in April 1912, when it picked up the survivors of the .Pamela Wall, Sara Arnold. "Outside Perspectives: Visiting Artists in Charleston." Antiques & Fine Art. 11th Anniversary, 2011. p. 305 p. 305Colin Campbell Cooper Biography. National Museum of Wildlife ArtRuth Lilly Westphal, Martin E. Petersen, Janet B. Dominik. Plein Air Painters of California: The North. Irvine, CA: Westphal Publishing. 1986. p. 61 They aided in the rescue of survivors"Titanic Hero Colin Campbell Cooper, Jr." Mental Floss. March 10, 2009. Retrieved March 30, 2014. and shared their room and took care of survivor Renee Harris, the wife of theatre manager Henry B. Harris, who had perished in the sinking.RMS Titanic History and Biography. Irene Harris. Encyclopedia Titanica. Colin Campbell Cooper subsequently made several paintings of the Titanic.

Death She died in 1920William H. Gerdts. East Coast/West Coast and Beyond: Colin Campbell Cooper, American Impressionist. Hudson Hills; 2006. . p. 54 at home of her sister, Mrs. John SteeleNew York Times. Emma E. Lampert obituary. August 21, 1920. New York Times. in Pittsford, New York on July 30. She is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.Rochester Art Club. Biographies of Founders. Rochester Art Club. Retrieved February 7, 2014.

In January 1940, a retrospective exhibition of her works was held at George H. Brodhead Fine Arts in Rochester. Her and her husband's papers are held in the manuscript collection of the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester.Emma Lampert Cooper papers, Manuscript Collection, River Campus Library, University of Rochester.

Works

Europe or North America

A Corner in the Studio, oil, 1882–1897 A Dutch Cavalier, water color, Memorial Art Gallery, University of RochesterMemorial Art Gallery. Emma Lampert Cooper. Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester. Retrieved February 7, 2014. Adobe House, oil, , private collection An Old Mill, Holland, water color, 1897–1917 At Colorado Springs, Colorado, oil, at "Cragsmoor Artist's Vision of Nature" exhibition, Cragsmoor Free Library, New York in 1977 Bee Hives in a French Garden, drawing, 1888, Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester Behind the Dunes Brittany Farmyard, oil, 1882–1897 Canal in Holland, water color, Cape Cod Vista, oil, Memorial Art Museum, University of Rochester Courtyard, oil, private ownerRichard H. Love; Carl William Peters. Carl W. Peters: American Scene Painter from Rochester to Rockport. University Rochester Press; 1 January 1999. . p. 112 Crooked Houses, oil, Dutch Interior, oil, 1882–1897 Geranium, oil Gray Day, oil, 1882–1897 Gray Day, Mystic, Connecticut, oil, 1882–1897 Hillside in Picardy