Cope, CHARLES WEST, R.A., subject-painter, was born at Leeds in 1811, the son of a landscape-painter. He attended the schools of the Royal
Academy, and studied for two years in Italy. He began to exhibit in the Academy in 1833, and produced a long series of sacred, historical, and domestic subjects. In 1843 his cartoon, 'The First Trial by Jury,' gained a £300 prize at the Westminster Hall competition; and in 1844 he was selected to execute, in the House of Lords, a mural painting of 'The Black Prince,' which was followed by 'Prince Henry,' and in the Peers' Corridor a series of eight subjects from the Civil War, completed about 1865. He was elected an A.R.A. in 1843, and an R.A. in 1848; and from 1867 to 1874 he held the professorship of Painting. He retired in 1883. He was an original member of the Etching Club, and his plate of 'The Life Class of the Royal Academy' (1865) ranks as one of the most vigorous figure-subjects ever etched by an Englishman. He died 20th August 1890.