Following is a biography taken from information on the web site of Bingham Gallery of San Francisco that held a special exhibition of Cooper's painting in the summer of 2000.

Ashley David Cooper was a famous San Jose, California artist and bon vivant, who chronicled the passing of the frontier with canvases of grand style. He thumbed his nose at upper crust society and, leading a Bohemian life style, paid his bar bills with his paintings of nudes. Many years after his death, he remains a legendary local figure, whose reputation for Bohemian excess outstrips his artistic achievements, which included more than 1000 paintings during his lifetime.

In the spring of 1898, Jane Stanford, wife of railroad magnate Leland Stanford, comm...