Description
Portrait of Daniel Haigh Esq., formally dressed for the hunt in top hat and blue long topcoat, astride a handsome brown horse. The image is set among rolling green hills in the country with a hunting party in the background left.
Abraham Cooper was a London artist of humble origins. He was employed for a time in the theatre, and taught himself to draw dogs and horses. In 1809 he sold a horse portrait to Sir Henry Meux, who became his patron and provided entrée into obtaining commissions from other members of the sporting nobility and gentry. Many of Cooper’s works were engraved in The Sporting Magazine. He exhibited a history painting of the Battle of Waterloo at the British Institution in 1816 and was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy the following year, becoming an Academician in 1820. He specialized in groups of horses and other animals, as well as sporting and historic battle scenes.
Condition: Generally very good with the usual overall toning and wear associated with separately issued sporting prints. Margins a bit short but ample.
References:
Williamson, George C., ed. Bryan ‘s Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. London: G. Bell and Sons: 1930. pp. 324-5. (Cooper)
Siltzer, Captain Frank, The Story Of British Sporting Prints. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925.
