John Alexander Portrait Paintings
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
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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 Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil
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John Alexander portrait paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic John Alexander portrait paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by John Alexander in oil paint, paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 18th century and is mostly associated with the Old Masters style. Not every interior allows for large John Alexander portrait paintings, so small editions measuring 31 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir Henry Raeburn, and George Romney. John Alexander portrait paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $9,525 and tops out at $9,525, while the average work can sell for $9,525.