Lot 498: W. Cooper Portrait of CSA Sgt. Major Abram Bostick, KIA

Washington Bogart Cooper (Tennessee, 1802-1882) oil on canvas oval portrait of Abraham (Abram) Bostick of Nashville, Tennessee. Bostick is depicted shortly before his death at age 20, fully facing the viewer and wearing a black coat and tie with white shirt. Unsigned, in original oval carved and molded giltwood and composition frame.  Sight: 29 in. H x 24 in. W. Frame: 39 in. H x 33 in. W. Note: Abram (Abraham) Bostick was born Nov. 18, 1840 to Hardin and Margaret Litton Bostick of Nashville. He was a 20 year old teacher when he enlisted in Company A, 7th Tennessee Infantry Regt. in 1861. He later served in Company K, where his brother, Thomas Hardin Bostick, was Captain. Abram was promoted to Sergeant Major just a few days before he was fatally wounded at Gainesville, VA, on June 28, 1862. Abram was the nephew of the painter, Washington Bogart Cooper (through his mother’s sister). Cooper’s account book shows Abram’s family paid for multiple portraits over the years (although not every sitter was named). The full-facing positioning of the subject, unusual for Cooper, suggests this portrait may have been painted posthumously, from a CDV.   Artist biography: Washington Cooper was born near Jonesboro, TN in 1802, but by 1820 he and his family were in Bedford County in Middle TN. According to family tradition, in about 1828, Cooper -who was known for sketching people and animals on any surface he could find- caught the attention of an artist whose name is not presently known, and was given some brief instruction in Murfreesboro. According to the later writings of his younger brother and fellow artist, William Cooper, in 1830 Washington Cooper moved to Nashville and a year later had earned enough money to travel to Philadelphia for a year to study with Thomas Sully and Henry Inman. Cooper returned to Nashville, where he commenced a prolific career in portraiture. Between 1837 and 1846, he averaged thirty five portraits a year. He was able to fund a formal art education in New York and Europe for his brother, William Cooper. William eventually returned to the South and also painted portraits, including many in Nashville.  In the early 1840s, Washington Cooper traveled briefly to paint in the Northeast and New Orleans, but he otherwise worked mainly in the Nashville area until three years before his death in 1888 at the age of 86. He painted a series of portraits of the governors of Tennessee, a series of portraits of the Masonic Grand Masters of Nashville, and a series of portraits of Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, along with a significant number of portraits of wealthy gentlemen, ladies, and their children, which remain in Tennessee private homes and institutional collections today. (Source: James C. Kelly, “Portrait Painting in Tennessee,” The Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Winter, 1987, Vol. XLVI No. 4).

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family of the sitter.

CONDITION:

Original canvas has light buckling, craquelure throughout. 1 in. long scratch lower right quadrant. Original frame in overall good condition with scattered cracking and wear, small losses.