John White Alexander

John White Alexander, at the time of his death President of the National Academy of Design, was not only one of the preëminent painters of America, but one of the most tactful, intelligent, and efficient promoters of every phase of life and action relating to the sphere of art. He was born at Allegheny City in 1856. He came to New York when seventeen, and drew illustrations for Harper Brothers for three years. Then he went abroad to study in Munich, and paint with a band of American students at a village in Bavaria; he went to Venice, thence to Florence, where he taught and painted. After this apprenticeship, he returned to America, and with a portrait of Thurlow Weed began the long series of portraits of distinguished men which spread his reputation throughout this country and beyond. But his great success abroad came with the three portraits of women, which he sent in 1893 to the Champ de Mars exhibition. They were received with applause and the painter made a Sociétaire. The next season, portraits exhibited in the Grafton Gallery in London increased his repute. Returning to America from these European successes, his portraits continued to enhance his fame, and his works were sought at exhibitions, and were as widely purchased, the Green Bow, for example, for the Luxembourg and the Woman in Gray for the Royal Collection in Vienna. Of his painting other than portraiture his lunettes in the Congressional Library are perhaps the best known.

Alexander was an open-minded man, interested in color-photography, and as energetic as he was capable in arranging scenic pageants and masquerades, in which he was efficiently assisted by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of our late fellow-member, James W. Alexander, who was no relation to the painter. We all know of his tireless activities, in which he gave too generously of his strength, to find an adequate home for the unified arts within this city, and assist in the organization and management of galleries and museums. He belonged to all the Societies, he was member of the Council of the Cooper Institute, Trustee of the Metropolitan Art Museum and the Public Library, and of the Fine Arts Society. His influence was felt everywhere. And the man was loved and cherished in his strong but gentle ways and personality:—a very winning, friendly man.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1916 Century Association Yearbook