Edinburgh [q. v.], was born in Edinburgh about 1740, and after receiving instruction from his father went to Paris and studied engraving under J. P. Le Bas, the famous French engraver, to whom he owed the correctness and brilliancy which distinguished some of his engravings. In 1761 he exhibited at the Incorporated Society of Artists a drawing from a picture by Trevisani, probably for the engraving of a Magdalen after that artist, which he exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in the following year. In 1762 also he exhibited one of his best engravings, viz. ‘The Children of Charles I,’ after Vandyck; at the Incorporated Society of Artists in 1764 he exhibited ‘The Virgin and Child,’ after Correggio, a very brilliant engraving. His name does not appear again as an exhibitor for some years, and during this period he seems to have visited Italy and produced a series of tinted drawings of Rome and its vicinity, which have gained for him the name of the ‘English Poussin.’ These he engraved, aquatinted, and published in 1778 and 1779, besides exhibiting some of the drawings at the Royal Academy. In 1782 he completed a large and important work, which he aquatinted and exhibited in 1783 at the Incorporated Society of Artists; this was the ‘Procession of the Knights of the Garter,’ from a design by Vandyck formerly in Charles I's collection, and intended to have been painted for the Banqueting House at Whitehall. Other engravings by him were portraits of ‘William III and Mary;’ Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford; Frederick, prince of Wales, and his sisters; ‘Rembrandt's Mistress’ (in mezzotint), ‘A Bacchanal,’ after N. Poussin; ‘A View of the Port of Messina before the Earthquake in 1783,’ after T. M. Slade. About 1787 Cooper settled in Charles Street, St. James's Square, and devoted himself to drawing, exhibiting numerous drawings at the Royal Academy up to 1809; among these were two of Windsor Castle, which were engraved and aquatinted by S. Alken. He was appointed drawing-master to Queen Charlotte, and also held that position in Eton School. He is stated to have been alive in 1814. Samples of his drawings may be seen at the South Kensington Museum and at the print room, British Museum; in the latter collection there are also numerous engravings, etchings, and lithographs by him.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Bryan's Dict. of Artists (ed. Graves); Sarsfield Taylor's State of the Arts in Great Britain and Ireland; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Guiffrey's Vandyck; Catalogues of the Royal Academy, South Kensington Museum, &c.]
COOPER, ROBERT (fl. 1681), geographer, son of Robert Cooper of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, became a servitor of Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1666, graduated in arts, and was made fellow of his college through the influence of Dr. Hall, the master. He was a good preacher and well skilled in mathematics. On 8 April 1681 he was admitted to the rectory of Harlington, near Hounslow, Middlesex, on the presentation of Sir John Bennett, afterwards Lord Ossulston, and was alive in 1700 (Newcourt). He wrote ‘Proportions concerning Optic-glasses, with their Natural Reasons drawn from Experiments,’ 1679, 4to, and ‘A General Introduction to Geography’ prefixed to the first volume of the ‘English Atlas,’ Oxford, 1680, fol.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 749; Life (Bliss), lxxxix; Kennet's Register, p. 500; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 632.]
COOPER, ROBERT (fl. 1800–1836), engraver, was largely employed during the first quarter of the century in engraving portraits. Among the publications on which he was engaged were: ‘La Belle Assemblée,’ a fashionable periodical; ‘Old Mortality’ and other novels by Sir Walter Scott; Lodge's ‘Portraits of Illustrious Personages;’ Chamberlaine's ‘Imitations of Original Drawings, by Hans Holbein;’ Tresham and Ottley's ‘British Gallery of Pictures,’ &c. He was employed by the Duke of Buckingham to execute some private plates for him; the most important and the best known of these is the engraving Cooper executed of the ‘Chandos’ portrait of Shakespeare. For him also he engraved portraits of the Duke of Buckingham, after Saunders, and Earl Temple, after the same; Count Gondomar, after Velazquez; Marquis de Vieuville, after Vandyck, and others. Cooper was also a very prolific engraver of book plates and vignettes, &c., and exhibited with the Associated Engravers in 1821. He was in addition a publisher, and in this line of business he seems to have met with financial disaster, as on 31 Oct. 1826 and the two following days his collection and stock of prints, drawings, and copperplates were dispersed by auction at Southgate's Rooms in Fleet Street. Among the drawings were some by Samuel de Wilde [q. v.], after whom Cooper executed numerous engravings of leading actors and actresses of the day for various theatrical publications. He is stated to have been living in 1836. He left unfinished in 1826 a large engraving of ‘Christ bearing the Cross,’ after Mignard.
