Abraham Cooper was born in Red Lion Street, London on 8 September 1787. He was the son of a tobacconist, who later kept an inn, first at Holloway and then at Edmonton. At the age of 13, Abraham became an employee of Astley’s Amphitheatre, managed by his uncle. Astley’s was a great 19th-century attraction and combined a proscenium stage with a circus ring. Equestrian plays were put on, often with knights clad in armour. Cooper was afterwards employed as a groom in the service of Sir Henry Meux. When he was 22, wishing to possess a portrait of a favourite horse under his care, he bought a manual of painting, learned something of the use of oil-colours and painted the picture on a canvas hung against the stable wall. His master bought it and encouraged him to continue in his efforts. He accordingly began to copy prints of horses, and was introduced to the animal painter Benjamin Marshall, who took him into his studio, and seems to have introduced him to the Sporting Magazine, an illustrated periodical, to which he subsequently became a contributor. A large number of his prints were produced after his work and like his master he painted many racehorse portraits. In 1814 Cooper exhibited his Tam O’Shanter, and in 1816, won a prize for his Battle of Ligny (an engagement during the Duke of Wellington’s Waterloo Campaign of 1815). In 1817 Cooper exhibited his Battle of Marston Moor and was elected ARA. In 1820 he was elected RA. Cooper, although ill-educated, is held to have been a clever and conscientious artist; his colouring is held by some to be flat, but he was a master of equine portraiture and anatomy, and had some antiquarian knowledge. He worked mainly in oil and sometimes in watercolour, and normally signed in monogram. Cooper was predominantly a painter of horses, but also executed several dog portraits. His work is characterised by a high finish and rich, naturalistic colouring, as well as a strict attention to anatomy. Several important artists studied under him, including John Frederick Herring, Senior and William Barraud. Cooper’s influence and style is apparent in some of their work. In 1813 Cooper executed his first commission for the Duke of Portland, who would in time, become one of his major patrons. In 1829 he produced a very successful painting entitled The Shooting Party, after which he employed the subject with some frequency. Amongst his patrons were the Prince Regent, Queen Adelaide and Queen Victoria, as well as many of the landed gentry. Cooper married Mrs Francis D’Ebro, by whom he had two sons, Alfred William Cooper and Alexander Davis Cooper (fl.1837-88), who became a painter and also had a stepson. Cooper was elected RA in 1817, becoming known to the connoisseurs as ‘Horse’ Cooper to distinguish him from his contemporary, the animal painter Thomas Sidney ‘Cows’ Cooper (1803-1902). He had a special fondness for paintings on Cavalier and Roundhead themes. He was a prolific painter of racing and hunting scenes, exhibiting 332 paintings at the RA between 1812 and 1869. One of the most interesting is of the portrait of Ellis of Doncaster 1836, with a travelling horse box in the background. His son, Alexander Davis Cooper was also a painter. Cooper’s work sold well during his lifetime and he is thought to have made a comfortable living. He retired from the active exercise of his profession in 1866, died on Christmas Eve 1868 at Woodbine Cottage, Greenwich and was buried at Highgate Cemetery. His obituary in The Sporting Magazine described him as ‘a guileless gentleman and a thorough sportsman who rode well to hounds, was a good shot and a clever fly fisherman.’ A number of Cooper’s paintings may be seen in public and private collections. They include: Bosworth Field (1825; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts); The Death of Sir Francis Russell, who was treacherously slain at a Border Meeting, July 16, 1585 (1827; Duke of Bedford, Woburn Abbey); The Battle of Zutphen, 1586 (1826; Duke of Bedford, Woburn Abbey); The Battle of Marston Moor (1819; Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston); The Heroic Conduct of Cromwell at Marston Moor (1821; Chequers, Buckinghamshire); Cromwell Leading His Cavalry into Battle (Cambridgeshire Museums, Cromwell House, Huntingdon); Wellington’s First Great Victory – The Battle of Assaye (The Light Dragoons) and The Battle of Ligny (Lord Egremont, Petworth House). His oil on panel Study of a Cat may be found in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.