Jewish Woman.

ALEXANDER, HENRY.

American (1860-1894)

Oil on canvas. Signed by the artist lower right and dated, 1887. Framed. Some abrasions.

Born in San Francisco to a pioneer California family, Henry Alexander was a decorative painter of portraiture, still-lifes, and rich interiors. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Wilhelm Lindenschmidt and Ludwig Loeffitz and then returned to America and occupied a studio in New York’s famous Tenth Street Studios. At age 34 he committed suicide. His family arranged a memorial exhibition of his art in San Francisco in 1906 however many works were destroyed in the city’s earthquake. The consignor relates that this painting existed as a pair - the other portrait, our sitter’s husband, appears as a religious Jew, with beard and yarmulke. In the present portrait, attention to detail in the lace collar and bonnet and realism in the facial complexities attest to Alexander’s mastery.