Carra Perkins Cope [abt.1880-1971]
American Impressionist Painter
The Lily Pond, Germantown, PA, ca.1920
Oil on canvas
24 x 18 inches
Signed at lower right.

Period Newcomb-Macklin frame.

BIOGRAPHY
American Impressionist painter Carra Perkins (Taylor) Cope was born April 14, 1880 in Palmerton, PA, to well known New Hope artists William Francis Taylor [1883-1970] and Mary (Smyth) Perkins Taylor [1874-1931].    Canadian-born William studied art at the Art Students League of New York under John Sloan [1871-1951] between 1905 and 1907.  In 1889, Mary studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under William Sartain [1843-1924] and at the Lawton Parker School under Charles Cottet [1863-1925] and Lucien J. Simon [1861-1945] in Paris.  The couple was married in 1913 and settled in Lumberville on the Delaware, just above New Hope, PA.  They would become part of the second wave of American Impressionists, the New Hope Artists Group /  Pennsylvania Impressionists / Delaware Valley Group of Painters.

Carra’s birth records may have been incorrect by at least ten years, as it is highly improbable that Carra could have been born in 1880 to a mother of only six years old.  There is no record that can be found of Carra’s artistic training and she was most likely trained by her parents.  Carra would marry Dr. Thomas Appleton Cope [1879-1932] and have two sons Thomas A. Cope, Jr. [1908-1959], E. Stanley P. Cope and one daughter Sarah Cope.  Thomas, her husband, died at age 52 from heart disease while on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay.  After her husbands death, she was very active in raising money to support the hospital that her husband worked at before his passing.

Carra exhibited at the Woodmere Gallery in Philadelphia, a popular Impressionist gallery.    She painted scenes around the Philadelphia and Bucks County area.

The painting shown is a scene from her historic stone house backyard on Germantown Avenue in Northern Philadelphia.

– Original biography written by David Smernoff, From Here To Antiquity, October 07, 2016.

EXHIBITIONS
– Woodmere Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, “Seventh Annual Member’s Exhibition”, unknown date.

SOURCES
– The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, “Baum’s Landscape”, Sunday, October 14, 1945, page 44, not illustrated.
– The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, “Plan Innovations at Fete For Germantown Hospital” by Jane Wister, Wednesday, October 10, 1945, page 22, not illustrated.
– The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA, “Dr. Thos. A. Cope Dies”, Saturday, May 28, 1932, page 4, not illustrated.
– The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philsdelphia, PA, “Mary Perkins Taylor, Prominent Artist, Dies”, Sunday, December 13, 1931, page 21, not illustrated.