[1][2][3] Washington Bogart Cooper was born near Jonesborough, Tennessee, on September 18, 1802, one of nine children.

[1][2] He studied art with Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl in Murfreesboro and settled in Nashville in 1830.

[1][2] In 1831, he went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to study art with Thomas Sully and Henry Inman, and returned to Nashville in 1832.

[1] His account book can be found on microfilm in the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

[1] Washington Cooper died of pneumonia on March 30, 1888, at the age of eighty-five, and he is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.