Washington Bogart Cooper
{{short description|American painter}}
{{Infobox person
| name =Washington Bogart Cooper
| image = Washington-bogart-cooper-self.jpg
| image_size = 190px
| caption = Self-portrait (1885)
| birth_name =
| birth_date ={{Birth date|1802|09|18}}
| birth_place =near Jonesborough, Tennessee, U.S.
| death_date ={{Death date and age|1888|03|30|1802|09|18}}
| death_place =Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
| death_cause =
| resting_place = Mount Olivet Cemetery
| resting_place_coordinates =
| known_for =
| education =
| employer =
| occupation =Painter
| title =
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| predecessor =
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| spouse =Ann Litton
| children =James Cooper
James Litton Cooper
Kate Cooper
Joseph Litton Cooper
| parents =
| relatives =William Brown Cooper (brother)
}}
Washington Bogart Cooper (September 18, 1802 – March 30, 1888) was an American portrait painter, sometimes known as "the man of a thousand portraits".James Hoobler, "[http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=313 Washington Bogart Cooper]," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.Estill Curtis Pennington, Lessons in Likeness: Portrait Painters in Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, 1802–1920 : Featuring Works from Filson Historical Society, Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2011. {{ISBN|9780813126128}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sV12204GZC8C&pg=PA122 p. 122]Patti Carr Black, Art in Mississippi, 1720–1980, Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1998, p. 70 [https://books.google.com/books?id=iPfA5Ha8wf4C&pg=PA70]
Early life
Washington Bogart Cooper was born near Jonesborough, Tennessee, on September 18, 1802, one of nine children. A brother, William Brown Cooper (1811–1890), also became a painter. As a child, he lived near Carthage, Tennessee and Shelbyville, Tennessee. He studied art with Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl in Murfreesboro and settled in Nashville in 1830. In 1831, he went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to study art with Thomas Sully and Henry Inman, and returned to Nashville in 1832.
Career
From 1837 to 1848, Cooper averaged thirty-five portraits a year. His portraits of Tennessee governors, commissioned by the Tennessee Historical Society, can be seen in the Tennessee State Capitol and the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. He also did portraits for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Grand Lodge of Tennessee, as well as a portrait of Alexander Campbell. The Tennessee State Museum holds fifty of his portraits. His account book can be found on microfilm in the Tennessee State Library and Archives.[http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/mguide02.htm Guide to Manuscript Materials on Microfilm : MF. 100 - MF. 199] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902050731/http://tennessee.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/mguide02.htm |date=2012-09-02 }}, Tennessee State Library and Archives, retrieved March 25, 2013. Some of his portraits are in Natchez, Mississippi, where he made a trip with his brother.
Personal life
In 1839, Cooper married Ann Litton from Dublin, Ireland. The couple had four children: James (1840–1843), James Litton (1844–1924), Kate (1846–1919), and Joseph Litton (1849–1936). A portrait of the three younger children is displayed in the Tennessee State Museum. The artist's family has a portrait that Cooper painted of his wife in about 1842. It is unlike his typical work, in that it shows the subject in profile, reading. It is considered to resemble Jean-Honoré Fragonard's A Young Girl Reading.
Death
Washington Cooper died of pneumonia on March 30, 1888, at the age of eighty-five, and he is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Washington B. Cooper}}
- [http://www.tnportraits.org/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?q=washington%20b.%20cooper&showurl=http%3A%2F%2Ftnportraits.org%2Ftnmuseum-index.htm Tennessee Portrait Project index] (Cooper's entries highlighted)
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Category:People from Jonesborough, Tennessee
Category:19th-century American painters
Category:American male painters
Category:Painters from Tennessee
Category:American portrait painters
Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Tennessee
Category:Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Nashville)
Category:People from Bedford County, Tennessee