Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooper, Abraham
COOPER, ABRAHAM (1787–1868), battle and animal painter, was born in Red Lion Street, Holborn, London, 8 Sept. 1787. His father was a tobacconist and afterwards an innkeeper in Holloway, and at one time at Edmonton. At the age of thirteen he found some employment as an assistant at Astley's Theatre. At this period the lad was fond of drawing animals, and produced several portraits of horses for a Mr. Phillips. When he was about twenty-two years of age there was a favourite horse in the possession of Mr. Henry (afterwards Sir Henry) Meux of Ealing. Cooper desired to have a portrait of this horse, but could not afford to pay for it, and when a friend remarked, ‘Why not try your own hand on old “Frolic”?’ Cooper set to work, and having finished a picture, he showed it to Sir Henry Meux, who not only purchased it, but became his friend and patron. He now began studying art by making careful copies of horses from engravings published in the ‘Sporting Magazine.’ These were drawn by Benjamin Marshall, to whom Cooper was introduced by his uncle Davis, the well-known equestrian. Davis wished his nephew to ride at Covent Garden Theatre, then under the management of John Kemble, about 1812–1813. This, however, he declined, but placed himself under Marshall. In 1812 he became a member of the Artists' Fund, and subsequently its chairman. In 1816 he was awarded a premium of 150 guineas by the British Institution for his picture of the ‘Battle of Waterloo.’ In 1817 he was elected as associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1820 a full member of that body for his picture of ‘Marston Moor’ (engraved by John Bromley). He retired in 1866. He died at his residence, Woodbine Cottage, Woodlands, Greenwich, on 24 Dec. 1868, and was buried in Highgate cemetery. In this year he had at the Royal Academy a subject from ‘Don Quixote.’ Cooper's first picture, ‘Tam o' Shanter,’ engraved by J. Rogers, was exhibited at the British Institution in 1814. It was purchased by the Duke of Marlborough. In 1816 Cooper sent to the same gallery ‘Blucher at the Battle of Ligny,’ for which he received from the directors of that institution 150 guineas. The picture passed into the collection of the Earl of Egremont. In 1817 he had seven pictures at the Royal Academy. He now resided at No. 6 New Millman Street, near the Foundling Hospital. Many other pictures followed, among which were ‘Rupert's Standard,’ ‘The First Lord Arundell taking a Turkish Standard at the Battle of Strigonium,’ ‘The Battle of Bosworth Field,’ ‘William III wounded the day before the Battle of the Boyne,’ ‘The Gillies' Departure,’ ‘The Battle of Assaye,’ &c. Two small pictures painted in 1818, viz. ‘A Donkey and Spaniel’ and ‘A Grey Horse at a Stable-door,’ are in the Sheepshanks collection at South Kensington Museum. As a painter of battle pieces Cooper stands pre-eminent. In the British school he held a somewhat analogous position to that which Peter Hess at one time held in Germany, and Horace Vernet occupied for many years in France. It is said, however, that Cooper could never bear to be compared with his French rival. His knowledge of horses was, from his early training, profound. Among the celebrated racehorses of his day he painted and drew ‘Camel,’ ‘Mango,’ ‘Galaba,’ ‘Bloomsbury,’ ‘Pussy,’ ‘Amato,’ ‘Shakespeare,’ ‘Deception,’ ‘Phosphorus,’ and many more. He largely contributed to the ‘New Sporting Magazine.’ There is in the department of prints and drawings, British Museum, a folio volume containing numerous engravings after Cooper, who exhibited, between 1812 and 1869, 407 works: 332 at the Royal Academy, 74 at the British Institution, and one in Suffolk Street.
[Sandby's History of the Royal Academy, i. 369; Art Journal, 1869, p. 45; Athenæum, 1869, p. 23; manuscript notes in the British Museum.]