PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS.
1820 became an Academician. From that time he
was a constant exhibitor of pictures, generally of
small dimensions, representing groups of horses and
animals, field-sports, battle-scenes in the olden time,
&c. ; a grey horse being a very favourite feature in
them. Latterly his works began to betray too
manifestly an amount of mannerism and weakness
which could not but detract from the reputation
acquired by him in his earlier days. In 1862,
following the example of Sir Robert Smirke, the
architect, he resigned the rank of Royal Academi-
cian. He died at Greenwich on Christmas Eve in
1868. As might have been expected, there was but
little variation in the types of his subjects and the
character of their treatment. The following are
some of his best works :
A Donkey and a Spauiel. 1S18. ) Jt South A Grey Horse at a Stable Door. 1818. ) Kensimjton. The Pride of the Desert. The Arab Sheik. The Dead Trooper. Hawking in the Olden Times. Battle of Eosworth Field. Battle of Naseby. Richard I. and Saladin at the Battle of Ascalon. BothweU's seizure of Mary, Queen of Scots.
COOPER, Alexander, who flourished about the middle of the 17th century, was the elder brother of Samuel Cooper, and was a scholar of his uncle Hoskins. Although greatly inferior to his brother, he painted portraits, both in oil and in miniature, with some reputation. He also succeeded in painting landscapes in water-colours. Not meeting with the encouragement he expected, he went to Flanders, where he passed some time, and afterwards visited Sweden, where he was made painter to Queen Christina.
COOPER, Edward, a portrait painter, likewise engraved after Albani and Kneller. A portrait painted and engraved by him bears date 1779, but the date of his death is not known.
COOPER, Richard, an engraver of portraits, is known chiefly as the master of Sir Robert Strange, who was apprenticed to him for six years. He was born in Yorkshire about 1705, but went early in life to Edinburgh, where he died in 1764.
COOPER, Richard, an English line-engraver, was Dom in London about 1730, and died therein 1820. He studied the art of engraving in Paris under Le Bas. His plates are chiefly portraits, of which the following are the principal :
The Children of Charles I., with a Dog; after Van Dyck. 1762. Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. WilUam III. and Queen Mary. Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his sisters. Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban's. WiUiam Shakespeare ; from the Chandos picture in the yational Portrait Gal'hry. Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. George, Lord Jeffreys, Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Lord High Chancellor. Sir John Napier, inventor of Logarithms. Allan Ramsay, Scotch pott. Andrew Allen, paiuter. The ' Chapeau de Faille ; ' after Rubens. Rembrandt's Mistress. ITtl. The Virgin and Infant ; after Correqiiio. 176.'!. The Maries and the Dead Christ ; rifter A. Carracci.
COOPER, Richard, said to have been a native of London, the son of the engraver of the same name, was a landscape painter of some merit At the end of the 18th century he went to Italy, where he studied the works of the old masters. On his return he lived for some time in Edinburgh, but subsequently settled in London. In 1800, and tlie following year, he exhibited at the Academy 'The Ruins of Vespasian's Amphitheatre, in Rome,' 'Landscape with Banditti,' and other views. He was at this time drawing-master at Eton College, and tutor to the Princess Charlotte. He died about 1810. Two water-colour drawings by him are in the South Kensington Museum.
COOPER, Robert, of whom little is known, engraved several of the heads in Lodge's Portraits and some of the portrait illustrations to Scott's Novels. He exhibited in 1821, and was living in 1836.
COOPER, Samuel, the eminent miniature painter, was born in London in 1609, and, with his brother Alexander Cooper, was instructed in the art by his uncle Hoskins, whom he soon surpassed. He was the first artist of his country who gave a strength and freedom to miniature, which approached to the vigour of oil-painting. The purity of his tints, the beauty of his carnations, and his loose and flowing manner of painting the hair, render the heads of his portrait models worthy of imitation ; but to the head his merit is almost entirely confined. When he ventured to express more of the figure, his drawing is defective, and his execution undetermined. According to Lord Orford, Cooper visited the court of France, where he painted several pictures, for which his widow received a pension during her life. The works of Cooper were deservedly admired in his lifetime, and they are still placed with distinction in thecabinetsof collectors. He died in London in 1672, and was buried in Old St. Pancras Church. Cooper painted some of the most illustrious men of his time; particularly Oliver Cromwell and John Milton, portraits of whom are now in the possession of the Duke of Buccleuch. He also painted Charles II., his Queen, and many of the celebrities of their court. It was for the court of England that Cooper painted the pictures for which his widow was promised a pension, which was never paid. This widow was sister to the mother of Alexander Pope.
COOPER, Thomas Sidney, R.A., wag born at Canterbury on September 26, 1803. When a mere child he displayed a marked interest in art, but his father's means being insufficient to provide him with the necessary training, he became assistant, at the age of twelve, to a coach-painter, an occupation which he later combined with scene-painting, pursuing both for some eight years, while he devoted all his scanty leisure to drawing and painting from nature. In 1823 he went to London, where, after he had worked for a time at the British Museum, he became a student at the Royal Academy, returning later to Canterbury and supporting himself there by giving lessons and by the sale of his works. In 1827 he removed tj Brussels, where he married, and remained till 1831,
when he came to settle in London. His first appearance as an exhibitor at the Royal Academy was in 1833, and he continued to contribute annually, being represented for the last time by four canvases in 1902 after his death, which occurred at Canterbury on February 7th of that year. He was elected an Associate of the Academy in 1845, and an Academician twenty-two years later. He made his chief successes in cattle-pieces, and so popular were these that he paid the penalty of becoming an especial prey of the picture-forgers, and had in later years to repudiate
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