(1787 - 1868)
Abraham Cooper was born in Hoborn, London; the son of a tobacconist and innkeeper. He attended a local school before working for his uncle, William Davis, manager of Astley’s Circus. In 1809 he decided to change career and to study painting under Benjamin Marshall. Cooper contributed illustrations to the ‘Sporting Magazine’ from 1811, exhibiting his first works in the following year. Initially his subjects were mostly horses and dogs, but from 1815 he also exhibited battle scenes. In 1820, he was elected a Royal Academician. His pupils included John Frederick Herring Senior, William Barraud and presumably his son, Alexander Davis Cooper, who became a genre painter and illustrator. He died at his home in Greenwich, aged 81.
