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Richard Cooper Jr.

British artist, died 1814 (1740–1814)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ7324877
Source-derived summary

Richard Cooper (or Richard Cooper Jr. or Richard Cooper II; 6 February 1740 in Edinburgh – December 1822 at Eltham), was the son of Richard Cooper senior (1701-1764) and his wife Anne Lind.

He is considered one of Britain's Grand Masters in Watercolour and Drawing. Despite this, little is known about him. He was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy.

Cooper succeeded Alexander Cuzens as Drawing Master at Eton College and taught members of the Royal Family. Queen Charlotte was England's enthusiastic Patron of the Arts and Queen to King George III. Queen Charlotte was interested in the arts and music. Cooper was her art teacher.

Cooper was taught by his father before moving to Paris to train under the engraver, J. P. Le Bas. Cooper went to Italy around 1770 but by 1778 he was back in Britain.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Richard Cooper Jr.” is british artist, died 1814 (1740–1814). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Richard, Cooper and British, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1740, 1822, 1701, 1764—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1740-02-06. For this dossier, Richard, Cooper and British is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british artist, died 1814 (1740–1814)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7324877. VIAF identifies the subject as 88990623. The Library of Congress control number is nr91016270. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1740, 1822, 1701 and 1764.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Richard Cooper Jr.”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Richard Cooper Jr. primary sources, Richard Cooper Jr. archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Richard Cooper Jr.”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Richard Cooper Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.