Washington Bogart Cooper

Washington Bogart Cooper
Self-portrait (1885)
Born	(1802-09-18)September 18, 1802 near Jonesborough, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	March 30, 1888(1888-03-30) (aged 85) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Resting place	Mount Olivet Cemetery
Occupation	Painter
Spouse	Ann Litton
Children	James Cooper James Litton Cooper Kate Cooper Joseph Litton Cooper
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".^[1][2][3]

Early life

Washington Bogart Cooper was born near Jonesborough, Tennessee, on September 18, 1802, one of nine children.^[1][2] A brother, William Brown Cooper (1811–1890), also became a painter.^[2][3] As a child, he lived near Carthage, Tennessee and Shelbyville, Tennessee.^[1][2] He studied art with Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl in Murfreesboro and settled in Nashville in 1830.^[1][2] In 1831, he went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to study art with Thomas Sully and Henry Inman, and returned to Nashville in 1832.^[1][2]

Career

From 1837 to 1848, Cooper averaged thirty-five portraits a year.^[1] 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.^[1][2] He also did portraits for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Grand Lodge of Tennessee,^[1][2] as well as a portrait of Alexander Campbell.^[2] The Tennessee State Museum holds fifty of his portraits.^[1] His account book can be found on microfilm in the Tennessee State Library and Archives.^[4] Some of his portraits are in Natchez, Mississippi, where he made a trip with his brother.^[3]

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).^[1][2] A portrait of the three younger children is displayed in the Tennessee State Museum.^[1] 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.^[1]

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.^[1][2]

Painting of the Sykes Children at the Tennessee State Museum

See also

• Lloyd Branson

References

1. James Hoobler, "Washington Bogart Cooper," Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.
2. 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. p. 122
3. Patti Carr Black, Art in Mississippi, 1720–1980, Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1998, p. 70 [1]
4. Guide to Manuscript Materials on Microfilm : MF. 100 - MF. 199 Archived 2012-09-02 at the Wayback Machine, Tennessee State Library and Archives, retrieved March 25, 2013.

External links

• Tennessee Portrait Project index (Cooper's entries highlighted)