John White Alexander

John White Alexander painted elegant women in flowing dresses, with long curving lines and soft, muted colour that link him to Art Nouveau and to Whistler. His figures often rest, read or turn in a quiet interior, and the curves of the dress are as important as the face.

Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, he began as an illustrator at Harper’s Weekly and then studied in Munich, Venice and Paris, where he came to know Frank Duveneck and Whistler. After returning to New York in the 1880s he became a leading portrait and figure painter. He painted the murals The Apotheosis of Pittsburgh for the Carnegie Institute and served as president of the National Academy of Design from 1909.

His work is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Look at the loose, thin paint of his dresses against plain backgrounds.