Gordon Cope

Gordon Cope is a Utah-born artist who is known for his impressionist style of genre scenes and landscape paintings. Gordon painted many scenes of life on the Uintah-Ouray Indian Reservation and portraits of notable Utah figures, such as the seventh governor of Utah, Henry H. Blood. His use of strong but conservatively applied colors gave his paintings life without sacrificing accuracy and realism. Additionally, he made significant contributions to the Utah art education scene.

Gordon Cope was born in 1906 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He began receiving art training at an early age from notable artists LeConte Stewart and A. B. Wright. Soon after completing his training with them, he moved to Arizona to study with Lawrence Squires. Later, he would travel around Europe, studying in Italy, France, England, and various other countries. Like many artists of his day, he studied at the renowned Académie Julian in Paris. After completing his studies in Europe, Gordon returned to Utah and began working in art education. He held various jobs as an instructor at LDS University (now LDS Business College), the Mountain School of Art, and the Art Barn School. 

In addition to his work in education, Gordon made contributions to the Utah Public Works of Art Project during the Great Depression era. He was assigned to portray the lives of Native Americans through art, as well as work on murals for the Utah State Capitol. Later, Gordon relocated to San Francisco where he found great success with his “vigorous impressionistic realism.” Gordon remained in California until his death in 1999.