Gordon Cope was born in Salt Lake in Salt Lake City in 1906. He was an educator and WPA artist whose style was a vigorous impressionism.  He died in 1999.

Cope gathered acquired his artistic training from many sources.  He studied in Utah with A. B. Wright and LeConte Stewart (1916–23) and in Arizona with Lawrence Squires (1923–24).  He studied the work of the old masters in galleries in England, France, Switzerland, and Italy from 1924 to 1928.  He began study at the Académie Julian in 1928.

Cope became involved with art education when he returned to Salt Lake City.  He was the head of the art department at Latter-day Saints University from 1930 to 1931. He maintained his work as an artist while he was director and teacher at the Mountain School of Art from 1932 to 1933. During the Depression, he worked with federal agencies—first as one the ten artists hired to be a part of the Works Project Administration (1939–41).  and later as one of the artists commissioned to work with Federal Emergency Relief Administration completing murals for the state capitol dome.

Some of his notable works are Utah Hills, East of Springville (1934) and Fishermen (1942).  In 1934 he was commissioned to paint a portrait of the governor of Utah, Henry Blood.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from the Springville Museum of Art.