Charles Naper was a British painter and architect. Born in Exeter in 1882, Naper was educated at Haileybury College from 1898 and later attended the Royal Academy Schools from 1900 to 1907. It was here that Naper developed his skill as a draughtsman, studying illustration from both an architectural and a painterly perspective. In 1910 the artist relocated to Looe, Cornwall where he lived and worked for a number of years with his wife, the painter and jeweller Ella Naper. The couple settled permanently in Trewoofe in Lamorna in 1913, where Naper had bought land in order to design and build a home with ample studio and workshop space for both himself and his wife.

Naper became a significant part of the artistic colony in Lamorna, befriending Laura and Harold Knight along with a host of other successful artists who provided both friendship and artistic inspiration. Cornwall also became the subject of much of Naper’s paintings, and his bold landscapes frequently depicted the cliffs surrounding the artist’s home in Lamorna. His accomplished approach to landscape paintings developed steadily over the years, and the artist later became particularly focused on representing the geometry of rock formations though he continued to undertake portrait commissions.