(1724 - 72), painter, s. and pupil? of John Alexander; emigrated to America 1766; Edinburgh c.1771.
1747 - 52 [dep.London summer 1746] Rome (by Easter 1747 - Jun. 1751), Leghorn (1751), Bologna, Venice (by 15 Feb. 1752) [Paris 1752, London 1754]
Named Cosmo after Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Alexander left Scotland after taking part in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. He went first to London and then to Rome, where he had arrived by Easter 1747 when he was living in the Strada Felice with two other Scots, the elderly Jesuit priest Patrick Leith and George Gray, a Scot of his own age.1 In July 1747 he delivered a letter of recommendation as 'a lad of genius in painting' from Patrick Dawson to his cousin, James Edgar, secretary to the exiled Stuart court.2 That same year he was commissioned by the Pretender to paint the portrait of his son, Charles Edward Stuart (who was not then in Rome, and it is likely that Alexander made a version of an original portrait by Domenico Dupra). Further commissions came from the Pretender's family, the dates on the completed works (priv. colls.) covering his time in Rome and his subsequent stay in Paris. Alexander also met the painter George Chalmers, his future brother-in-law, and painted other exiled Jacobites, including the Earl of Winton in 1749. In February 1750 Isabella Lumisden wrote from Edinburgh to her brother Andrew, under-secretary to the Pretender in Rome, sending her compliments to 'Alexander'.3 Alexander received commissions from other Scots: for Alexander Hay he copied Caravaggio's Woman teaching a girl to sew, and for Peter Coutts the Dying Gladiator (in grisaille) and Carracci's Susanna. In 1751 James Edgar helped him obtain a commission from the 9th Earl Marischal, to purchase prints and drawings and to complete a painting of The Battle of Bannockburn, originally ordered from Placido Costanzi. A Charity (sold Christie's, 22 Sep. 1975) was acquired by Lord Deskford.4 Alexander left Rome in 1751, making long visits to Leghorn, where he painted William Aikman (priv. coll.), Bologna, Venice, and Dresden.
1. AVR sa, S.Andrea delle Fratte. 2. D. and F. Irwin, Scottish Painters at Home and Abroad, 46. Notes by B. Skinner. 3. Dennistoun, 1:135. 4. F. Russell, Burl.Mag., 118 [1976]: 700.