Francis Alexander (February 3, 1800 – March 27, 1880) was an American portrait-painter.
Biography
Alexander was born in Windham county
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
in February 1800. Brought up on a farm, he taught himself the use of colors, and in 1820 went to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and studied painting with
Alexander Robertson.
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
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
(1842).
In 1840 he was elected to the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
as an honorary member. There is a tradition that when Dickens visited Boston, a line of New England portraitists was already fawning on shore, hoping to be the first to capture the great novelist's image on canvas. But Francis Alexander reached the writer well ahead of his peers—by traveling in a small advance boat to greet Dickens as his vessel entered the harbor. American poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
(whom Alexander also painted) would later coin the verb ''Alexandered'' (as in, wangled), sniffing that such and such a person had ''Alexandered'' his way into a highly coveted invitation to a party. Francis Alexander died in 1881 in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
.
Family
Alexander married Lucia Grey Swett in 1836. Their daughter
Francesca Alexander
Francesca Alexander (February 27, 1837 – January 21, 1917), born Esther Frances Alexander and also known as Fanny Alexander, was an American expatriate illustrator, author, folklorist, and translator.
Early life
She was born Esther Frances Al ...
was a popular illustrator, author, and translator.
Works
One of Alexander's best portraits is that of Mrs. Fletcher Webster, formerly in the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
. 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.
Notes
References
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Attribution:
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External links
Francis Alexander at American Art GalleryMuseum of Fine Art, Boston
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Francis
1800 births
1881 deaths
People from Killingly, Connecticut
19th-century American painters
American male painters
American portrait painters
Artists from Boston
American expatriates in Italy
19th-century American male artists