 | This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
John White Alexander | |
|---|---|
 Alexander in 1882 or 1883 | |
| Born | (1856-10-07)October 7, 1856 |
| Died | May 31, 1915(1915-05-31) (aged 58) |
| Known for | Painting |
John White Alexander (October 7, 1856 – May 31, 1915) was an American portrait, figure, and decorative painter andillustrator.
John White Alexander was born inAllegheny, Pennsylvania, now a part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 7, 1856. Orphaned in infancy, he was reared by his grandparents. He became atelegraph boy in Pittsburgh at the age of 12.Edward J. Allen (1830–1915), the secretary/treasurer of theAtlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, recognized Alexander's drawing talent while he worked there and adopted him.[1] Allen brought Alexander to the Allen home at "Edgehill" where Alexander painted various members of the Allen family, including Colonel Allen.[1]
Alexander moved toNew York City at the age of 18 and worked in an office atHarper's Weekly, where he was an illustrator and political cartoonist at the same time thatEdwin Austin Abbey,Joseph Pennell,Howard Pyle, and other celebrated illustrators worked there. After an apprenticeship of three years, he traveled toMunich for his first formal training. Owing to the lack of funds, he removed to the village of Polling, Bavaria, and worked withFrank Duveneck. They traveled toVenice, where he profited from the advice ofWhistler, and then he continued his studies inFlorence, theNetherlands, andParis.
In 1881, he returned to New York City and quickly achieved great success in portraiture, numbering among his sittersOliver Wendell Holmes,John Burroughs,Henry G. Marquand,R.A.L. Stevenson, andJames McCosh, the president of Princeton University.
His first exhibition in theParis Salon of 1893 was a brilliant success and was followed by his immediate election to theSociété Nationale des Beaux Arts. In 1889 he painted for Mrs. Jeremiah Milbank a well-received portrait ofWalt Whitman and one of her husband,Jeremiah Milbank. In 1901 he was named Chevalier of theLegion of Honor, and in 1902 he became a member of theNational Academy of Design, where he served as president from 1909 to 1915. He was a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters. He received the gold medals of theParis Exposition (1900) and theWorld's Fair in St. Louis (1904).
In 1909 theNational Arts Club presented a retrospective exhibition of his work that included 63 canvases as well as photographs of his work.[2][3]
He was several times a judge at the annual exhibit of the Carnegie Institution, and in other years he won prizes, once an honorable mention and twice the first prize, the second time in 1911 forSunlight.[4]
He served as a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1909 until his death in 1915.[5]
He was among the artists who founded theNational Society of Mural Painters in 1895[6] and he was elected to a five-year term as its president in 1914.
Alexander was married to Elizabeth Alexander (1866–1947), to whom he was introduced in part because of their shared last name. She was the daughter of James Waddell Alexander (1839–1915), longtime executive of theEquitable Life Assurance Society.[7] The Alexanders had one child, the Princeton mathematicianJames Waddell Alexander II.
Alexander died of heart disease at his home in New York City on May 31, 1915.[8] He was buried in Princeton, New Jersey, following a church service in Manhattan.[9]
The Cleveland Museum of Art presented a memorial exhibit that included 27 of his works during the summer of 1917.[10]
Many of his paintings are in museums and public places in the United States and in Europe, including theMetropolitan Museum of Art, theBrooklyn Art Museum, theLos Angeles County Museum of Art, theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston, theButler Institute, and theLibrary of Congress in Washington D.C. In addition, in the entrance hall to the Art Museum of theCarnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a series of Alexander's murals titled "Apotheosis of Pittsburgh" (1905–1907) covers the walls of the three-story atrium area.
Alexander'sartist's proof of his portrait of Whitman, signed by the artist in April 1911, is in the Walt Whitman Collection at the University of Pennsylvania.[11]
