John Alexander (1686 - c.1766)

• Was a Scottish painter and engraver.
• Alexander was the son of a doctor from Aberdeen.
• The painter George Jamesone was his paternal great-grandfather.
• He spent some time in London before going to Rome in 1711.
• He studied in Italy under Giuseppe Chiari.
• Following his return to Scotland in 1720 he was commissioned by Alexander Gordon to decorate a staircase at Gordon Castle with a painting depicting the Rape of Persephone.
• Many of his clients, including Gordon, were Jacobites, and Alexander himself took part in the rising of 1745, becoming a fugitive after the Battle of Culloden.
• He resumed his career, and was working openly in Aberdeen by 1748.
• The portrait painter Cosmo Alexander was his son.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: John Alexander, Self-portrait, 1711.
• Next