COOPER, Edwin

1785 - 1833

Edwin Cooper was born at Nottingham on 2 January 1785, and baptised at St James’s church, Bury St Edmund’s on 30 August 1792, eighth child of Daniel Cooper, a miniature painter and drawing master at Bury Grammar School, and his wife Martha née Hockley who married at Bury St Edmund’s on 30 December 1779, Edwin's sister was Anne Cooper. He studied sculpture and drawing under an obscure teacher, Martineau, and at the age of 21, was a professional artist and an associate member at the then newly formed Norwich Society of Artists, exhibiting four horse portraits in 1806, which became his speciality, and he continued to exhibit until 1832. He may have also had a studio at Newmarket where he worked with such artists as Ben Marshall (1768-1835), but about 1810, he moved to Beccles in Suffolk where, in 1817, he purchased a house in the New Market. Edwin married at Beccles on 19 December 1826, Mary Ann Hindes, daughter of the late Frederick Hindes of Beccles, and the following year the couple moved to a substantial house at Pudding Moor, Beccles, they had no children. A prolific artist, working in both oil and watercolour, his patrons included the Dukes of Grafton and of York, Lord Grosvenor, Sir Thomas Gooch and Sir Thomas Astley. He exhibited an equestrian painting at the Royal Academy in 1803 but, following a falling out with the hanging committee over the work, which was alleged to be a copy of George Stubbs, not again until 1831. Cooper painted cock-fighting scenes including ‘Brightelmstone Races’ (1804) and ‘The Set To’ and ‘The Death’ dated 1816. Edwin Cooper died at Beccles 'after a lingering illness' on the 9 January 1833, aged 46 and buried at St Michael's, Beccles, five days later.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from
1803 267 Portrait of a Grey Arabian Mare: the property of His R.H. the Duke of York
1831 1019 Horses Frightened

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Works by This Artist