William Alexander (born Wilhelm Alexander; 2 April 1915 – 24 January 1997), known as Bill Alexander on his TV show, was a German

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, art instructor, and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

host. He was the creator and host of '' The Magic of Oil Painting'' (1974–82) television series that ran on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

in the United States. He co-wrote ''The Art of Bill Alexander and …'' (1987–95), a series of books on

wet-on-wet Wet-on-wet, or ''alla prima'' (Italian, meaning ''at first attempt''), direct painting or au premier coup, is a painting technique in which layers of wet paint are applied to previously administered layers of wet paint. Used mostly in oil paint ...

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

, based on different PBS series of the same form. He also taught the television painter

Bob Ross Robert Norman Ross (October 29, 1942 – July 4, 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He was the creator and host of ''The Joy of Painting'', an instructional television program that aired from 1983 to 1994 on ...

his signature "quick" wet-on-wet technique.

Early life

Wilhelm Alexander was born in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

. His family fled to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Career

Apprenticed as a carriage maker, Alexander was drafted into the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Captured by Allied troops, he painted portraits of Allied officers' wives and he soon made his way to the United States. After World War II, Alexander was a refugee and became a professional painter. He pioneered the modern "quick" version of the 15th century

technique, and moved to North America. Later, known as Bill Alexander, he began hosting television shows focused on painting education and his methods. He is best known for the television program '' The Magic of Oil Painting'' which ran on

in the US from 1974 to 1982. He teamed with other artists on several different PBS series of the format ''The Art of Bill Alexander and …'' that ran from 1984 to 1992. These artists started with Lowell Speers and included Robert Warren, Sharon Perkins and Diane André. Alexander and the second featured artist would alternate episodes, with both painters using the wet-on-wet method. This series was turned into a series of books " as seen on television".

Relations with Bob Ross

TV host and prolific painter

studied under Alexander, from whom he learned his

technique, a method of painting rapidly using progressively thinner layers of oil paint. Ross mentioned in the very first episode of ''

The Joy of Painting ''The Joy of Painting'' is an American half-hour instructional television show created and hosted by painter Bob Ross which ran from January 11, 1983 to May 17, 1994. In most episodes, Ross taught techniques for landscape oil painting, completi ...

'' that he had learned the technique from Bill Alexander, calling it "the most fantastic way to paint that you've ever seen". Ross also dedicated the first episode of the second season to Alexander, explaining that "I feel as though he gave me a precious gift, and I'd like to share that gift with you

he viewer He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

. As Ross's popularity grew, his relationship with Alexander became increasingly strained. In a 1991 interview with ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Alexander said of Ross: "He betrayed me. I invented 'wet on wet'. I trained him, and he is copying me – what bothers me is not just that he betrayed me, but that he thinks he can do it better." Alexander refers here to the fact that Bob Ross used some of his individual patter like "happy little trees" and borrowed some of his unique peculiarities. Art historians have pointed out that the "wet-on-wet" (or ''alla prima'') technique actually originated in

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

during the 15th century, and was used by

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...

Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of th ...

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

, and

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

, among many others. However, Alexander invented the step of priming the canvas with a coat of thin liquid white paint (which Alexander branded as "Magic White") and designed the style of palette knife employed, which is larger, firmer, and has one straight edge. Both inventions are fundamental for his wet-on-wet technique.

Bibliography

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References

External links