John Alexander Art
American, 1680-1775
John Alexander was one of the leading Scottish artists of the 18th century. Born to an Aberdeen doctor, he boasted patrilineal descent from George Jamesone, a purported student of Rubens and Van Dyck, and the founder of a Scottish school of portraiture which found its highest expression in Ramsay and Raeburn in the following century. Alexander travelled to Rome in 1711 where he trained under Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari. He produced engravings after Raphael’s frescoes in the Vatican Loggia, and worked for the Marquess of Annandale to collect paintings and sculpture; he made drawings of the works, and collected some copies for himself, which he brought back to Scotland in 1720. Whilst in Italy, Alexander received commissions from the Medici in Florence, and the exiled Stuart court in Rome, who included the Lord Chief Justice Coke and the Earl of Mar. Lord Mar had arrived in Italy after the failed Jacobite rising of 1715, and even commissioned Alexander on behalf of the exiled Royal family: Alexander wrote to Mar, ‘You will receive from the post the Parnassus of Raphael […] I pray you anew to excuse my weak beginnings to the King’ (Holloway, p. 86).
Alexander married Isobel Innes of Tillyfour in 1723 and their son Cosmo was born the following year. Their younger son Charles was sent abroad to the Scots Benedictine College at Ratisbon, and his daughter married George Chalmers, son to Roderick Chalmers and heir to an impoverished baronetcy. Alexander took a number of aristocratic commissions, which included the 4th Earl and Countess of Kinmore; James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Hamilton; and the 7th Earl of Wemyss. He was based in Edinburgh in his later career, painting figures of early Enlightenment Edinburgh, such as George Drummond, the Lord Provost who had envisaged the grid plan of Edinburgh’s New Town. Alexander was a close friend of the architect James Gibbs, and the engraver and antiquary George Vertue, who described the artist as ‘a merry dispos’d gent, [who] laughs eternally’ (Holloway, p. 85). Alexander was a signatory in 1729 of the charter of Scotland’s first art institution, the Academy of St Luke of Edinburgh.to
1
2
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
3
1
1
3
7,738
4,946
2,504
1,373
2
2
1
Artist: John Alexander
Portrait of George Gordon, 7th Laird of Buckie (1707-1756)
By John Alexander
Located in Maidenhead, GB
John Alexander (Scottish, 1686-1766)
Portrait of George Gordon, 7th Laird of Buckie (Scottish, 1707-1756), c. 1743
Oil on canvas
In a carved ebonised frame, with gilded inner slight...
Category
1740s Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil
LANDSCAPE
By John Alexander
Located in New York, NY
Fall landscape of field of wheat or long grass.
yellow, beige and brown colors.
American
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Foxglove's Journey
By John Alexander
Located in San Francisco, CA
Alexander was born in Beaumont, Texas, in 1945. He received his B.F.A. from Lamar University in Beaumont in 1968 and his M.F.A. from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 19...
Category
2010s John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil
Related Items
Saint Michael Archangel López 18th Century Paint Oil on canvas Spanish school
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
18th-century Spanish Colonial School
Attributed to Juan Pedro López (Caracas, Venezuela, 1724 - 1787)
Saint Michael the Archangel
Oil on canvas
91 x...
Category
18th Century Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil
Summer - Nude Oil Painting Colors Blue White Grey Green Pale Brown Yellow
By Ivan Roussev
Located in Sofia, BG
"Summer" is a painting by the impressionist Ivan Roussev.
About the artwork:
TECHNIQUE: oil painting
STYLE: Impressionist, Contemporary
Edition : Unique, signed
Weight: Approximate...
Category
2010s Impressionist John Alexander Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
H 23.63 in W 39.38 in D 0.79 in
18th century Dutch portrait of a family group in an interior
Located in Bath, Somerset
An 18th century painting of a family group (otherwise known as a ‘conversation piece’) gathered around a table, an open door to the garden beyond. The father seated, with his son standing by his side, the mother seated, playing with a child on her lap, with another lady, possibly a maid standing behind, a Culpeper microscope...
Category
18th Century Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Oval 18th century Portrait of a Young girl, oil on copper
By (Follower of) Sir Godfrey Kneller
Located in Woodbury, CT
This exquisite 18th-century portrait depicts a young girl, delicately rendered in the style of Sir Godfrey Kneller, one of the most celebrated portrait painters of the Baroque period...
Category
1750s Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Copper
Norway III, dark blues and blacks, night sky
By Gregory Frux
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Dr. Rowland S. Russell PhD. writes about his experience directly witnessing Greg's practice as a “plein air” artist:
Whether he’s portraying quiet scenes from Brooklyn’s Prospect Park or the Botanical Gardens, intriguing remnants of New York’s varied industry (grain silos...
Category
2010s American Realist John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Oil Portrait of a Victorian Lady, c. 1850
Located in Chicago, IL
Painted in the 19th century, this exquisite miniature portrait wonderfully exemplifies realism in traditional oil painting. The small artwork is painted in the conventional portraiture style of the Old Masters, and achieves soft realism with fine brushwork and a subdued, neutral palette. The half length portrait depicts a fine Victorian woman dressed in all black with a delicate lace collar and bonnet. She wears a ruby broach...
Category
Mid-19th Century Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil
GIRL WITH KITTEN- In the Manner of F.Ballavoine's - Italy Oil on canvas paint
By Giulio Di Sotto
Located in Napoli, IT
Girl with kitten - Giulio Di Sotto Italia 2008 - Oil on canvas cm. 60x50
Frame available on request from our workshop.
This painting is Giulio Di Sotto’s personal reinterpretation of the 19th century French painter Jules Frédéric Ballavoine...
Category
Early 2000s Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Portrait Lady Pulzone Paint Oil on canvas Old master 16th Century Italian Roma
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
Scipione Pulzone, called Il Gaetano (Gaeta 1544 - Rome 1598) - workshop of
Portrait of Bianca Cappello (Venice, 1548 - 1587) Grand Duchess of Tuscany, second wife of Francesco I de 'Medici
Second half of the 16th century
oil on canvas, cm. 70 x 56 cm., Framed 103 x 87 cm.
The proposed painting illustrates the portrait of Bianca Cappello (Venice, 1548 - 1587), a noblewoman of Venetian origins, second wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco I de 'Medici, whose expressive power is wisely highlighted by the composite cut of light three quarters, with the head and gaze directed at the observer. The beam of light coming from her right brings out the volumes of her face plastically and lingers on her features, highlighted by the large white lace ruff that surrounds his neck and by the details of her precious clothing.
Bianca wears a dark red dress, perhaps a zimarra, embroidered in gold with a plunging neckline and a raised collar of the shirt curled in a ruff and also edged with precious lace, embroidered with the motif of the Florentine lily.
The favorite jewels of the noblewoman were pearls: we see them on a choker that adorns the neckline, in the earrings and again in the hairstyle, which sees the hair gathered at the nape of the neck and adorned with a string of small black pearls and embellished with a clasp.
It is a high-quality painting that can be confined to the workshop of the painter Scipione Pulzone called Gaetano, representing at best a pictorial genre, that of portraiture, in which the master excelled. This attribution would be confirmed by comparisons with the numerous portraits that Pulzone dedicated to the Medici family.
Our painting, in particular, could represent one of the versions that the workshop has replicated, at the request of the numerous art collectors who wish to have a portrait of one of the most influential personalities of the Florentine scene.
The characters drawn by Pulzone were icons of incomparable elegance: noblewomen, knights and religious lent their faces to the eye of the artist who was able to grasp every meticulous detail with his superb technique. A photographic wealth and surprising material attention that trace the pictorial prototypes of Flemish inspiration, in particular of Antonis Mor...
Category
16th Century Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil
Sheep beside a Loch in the Scottish Highlands by 20th Century British Artist
By Wendy Reeves
Located in Preston, GB
Oil Painting of Sheep beside a Loch in the Scottish Highlands by 20th Century British Artist, Wendy Reeves.
Art measures 20 x 16 inches
Frame measures 29 x 25 inches (frame commens...
Category
Late 20th Century Realist John Alexander Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil, Paint
A Boy and His Pug Dog
Located in Wiscasett, ME
Fantastic early portrait of a young man and his pug dog. This painting is most likely British, but it could also be from continental Europe. It dates from the late 18th to the early ...
Category
Early 19th Century Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Escuela española (XIX) - Óleo sobre tela - Retrato femenino
Located in Sant Celoni, ES
La obra no va firmada
La obra se presenta enmarcada con un marco de la época de la pintura (el marco presenta alguna leve falta)
Medidas de la obra: 59 cm. de altura x 48 cm. de an...
Category
Mid-19th Century Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Oil
17th Century English Portrait of Admiral Horatio Nelson's great grandfather
Located in Norwich, GB
A fascinating portrait dating from circa 1695-1700 with wonderful provenance: it belonged to the British industrialist Leonard Pelham Lee (1903–1980) and hung in his manor house in W...
Category
17th Century Old Masters John Alexander Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
H 31.5 in W 27.17 in D 0.79 in
Previously Available Items
Night Heron Stalker
By John Alexander
Located in Austin, TX
Artist: John Alexander
Title: Night Stalker
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 35" x 30"
Framing: Framed
Condition: Excellent
Category
Mid-20th Century John Alexander Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Ink Drawing of a Man in a Mask
By John Alexander
Located in Houston, TX
Delightful ink portrait drawing by John Alexander of a man in a mask.
Category
1980s Modern John Alexander Art
Materials
Pastel, Ink, Watercolor, Pen
LANDSCAPE 091
By John Alexander
Located in New York, NY
oil painting on canvas framed in brown wood frame depicting an abstracted landscape.
Category
1990s Contemporary John Alexander Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
John Alexander art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic John Alexander art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by John Alexander in monoprint, paint, oil paint and more. Not every interior allows for large John Alexander art, so small editions measuring 23 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Saul Chase, Jon Carsman, and Alan Feltus. John Alexander art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,000 and tops out at $20,000, while the average work can sell for $11,000.