Francis Alexander (painter)

Template:Short description Francis Alexander (February 3, 1800 – March 27, 1880)Template:Sfn was an American portrait-painter.

Biography

Alexander was born in Windham county Connecticut in February 1800. Brought up on a farm, he taught himself the use of colors, and in 1820 went to New York City and studied painting with Alexander Robertson.Template:Sfn

He spent the winters of 1831 and 1832 in Rome. Afterwards, he resided for nearly a decade in Boston, Massachusetts, where he had considerable vogue, and where he painted a portrait of Charles Dickens (1842).Template:Sfn

In 1840, he was elected to the National Academy of Design as an honorary member. Francis Alexander died in 1881 in Florence.Template:Sfn

Family

Alexander married Lucia Grey Swett in 1836. Their daughter Francesca Alexander was a popular illustrator, author, and translator.Template:Sfn

Works

One of Alexander's best portraits is that of Mrs. Fletcher Webster, formerly in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.Template:Sfn This romantic portrait, in which the sitter appears swathed in ermine, was deaccessioned from the Museum early in the 20th century and returned to descendants in the Sargent family.

References

Attribution:

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Francis Alexander at American Art Gallery
• Additional Biographical Info.
• Museum of Fine Art, Boston