No. 3114 Alexander Pope, Jr., 1849-1924
Source: Men of Progress. Boston: New England Magazine, 1894.
Alexander Pope, of Boston, animal painter, was born in Dorchester (now of Boston), March 25, 1849, son of Alexander and Charlotte (Cushing) Pope, and the direct descendant, through nine generations, of John Howland and Elizabeth Tillie, who came over in the “Mayflower.” He was educated in the public schools, graduating at the Dorchester High School.
For the first twenty years and more of his active life he was engaged in mercantile pursuits, concerned in the lumber business with his father, after his eighteenth year a partner of the latter, under the firm name of A. Pope & Son. He began painting in 1880 or 1881, and took up the art as a profession a few years later; but he displayed artistic talent at a much earlier date in sculptural work and in wood carving. As early as his twenty-first year he had done some notable carving of game, especially pheasants and ducks, coloring them to the life. Subsequently several examples of his work found their way into private collections, two specimens being ordered by the Czar of Russia, and ultimately hung in his dining hall. Mr. Pope’s first work in clay, after the execution of a number of study heads, was in portrait busts in 1881 and 1882, one of which of “Father” Merrill–is now in Wesleyan Hall in Boston.
From modeling he progressed to painting, beginning with a number of dog portraits. His first publicly recognized canvas was a painting of game-cocks, which he named “Blood will Tell,” purchased by Mr. Allen, of the Astor House, New York. Then followed a number of small canvases, groups of still life: a portrait of a St. Bernard dog for a Portland gentleman, which, when exhibited, attracted much attention from dog fanciers, and brought other commissions to the artist; a Gordon setter, painted for John E. Thayer, of Boston; and a pointer for Bayard Thayer. In the autumn of 1886 he painted the large canvas :”Calling out the Hounds,” Emil Carlsen laying in the background, which depicts a hunting party just about to start out, with the splendid pack of dogs in the foreground. This was shown in several exhibitions, and at once established Pope’s reputation. It now hangs in the Boston Tavern. The next year he painted “Waiting” — two alert setters listening for the sound of the step of their master — for Mr. Whitney, of Rochester, N.Y., which later became the property of D.S. Hammond, of the Plaza Hotel, New York, and was the beginning of a series of interesting canvases, — “In the Pasture,” showing the necks and heads of five noted horses owned by Mr. Hammond, a portrait of a full-grown lion, and “Just from Town,” displaying two proud peacocks of brilliant plumage, strutting about a country farm and dazzling a couple of rustic rabbits with their splendor. These pictures are now displayed in the Plaza Hotel, and are among the sights of the town. In them Pope broadened out into full picture painting, introducing incident and appropriate accessories; and subsequently he undertook his most serious work up to that time, an historical piece, “The Lion and Glaucus,” taking his theme from Bulwer’s “Last Days of Pompeii,” for which he made a most patient and thorough study.
A later work, “The Truant,” is pronounced one of his best works. This shows two English setters, one a golden brown and white, standing in a woodland pool, the other, a black and white, emerging from the bush at the edge of the pool, and gazing steadfastly upon his comrade, the truant from the chase, — the background composed of alder-bushes flecked with sunlight. Other notable pictures from Mr. Pope’s brush in recent years are a fine setter owned by C.E. Cobb, of Newton; “On Duty,” a great St. Bernard, with a canteen of spirits strapped to the collar, ploughing through the mountain snow; the “Polo Pony,” life size, owned by George F. Bouve, of Boston, and pronounced by eminent critics the most lifelike piece of animal painting ever shown in Boston; the “Bengal Tiger,” also owned by Mr. Bouve, and now in Plaza Hotel, New York; the “Polo Player,” owned by John Shepard, Jr., of Providence. But, unquestionably, his most important work was the “Martyrdom of Saint Euphemia,” which was exhibited at the Boston Museum of fine Arts for several months. Mr. Pope works in his studio by casts and models representing a variety of animals in various poses, and the walls are decorated with sportsman’s paraphernalia, fishing-rods, nets, huntsmen’s outfits, hunting baskets, and so on. Of his mastery over beasts an observant critic has said: “Pope shows that he understands their natures. They, dogs, especially, follow him as he follows them. Affection also enters largely in his work. Not a motion escapes his attention: the meaning of every motion he interprets and satisfies himself about.” Mr. Pope is a member of the St. Botolph and the Athletic clubs. He was married September 16, 1873, to Miss Alice D’W. Downer, daughter of Samuel Downer, of Boston, and great-granddaughter of Major Thomas Melville.
From https://aradergalleries.com/collections/alexander-pope-jr-1849-1924
Alexander Pope Jr. (1849-1924)
Alexander Pope Jr. was a renowned American sporting artist who specialized in animal and still life paintings. Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1849, he briefly studied sculpture with the prominent artist William Copley and essentially taught himself to paint. Although primarily lauded as a painter, he continued producing sculptures well into the 1880s and later became a member of the famed art association the Copley Society of Boston. In 1878 and 1882, he published two important portfolios of chromolithographs after his watercolours: Upland Game Birds and Water Fowl of the United States, from which this plate comes, and Celebrated Dogs of America respectively. In addition to his more conventional animal paintings, Pope was also known for his still-life compositions of dead animals hanging in the interior of wooden crates, which innovatively combined his avid interest in hunting and fishing with the trompe l’oeil style of painting. His works and those of the influential trompe l’oeil painter William Harnett (1848-1892) helped popularize the genre of still life in late nineteenth-century America. Cf. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs vol. 11, p. 140.
The Common Snipe is a print from Upland Game Birds and Water Fowl. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1877-78. Colour-printed lithograph, finished by hand and heightened with gum arabic. Very good condition. 13 7/8 x 20 inches. 18 1/2 x 23 3/8 inches. From “Upland Game Birds and Water Fowl of the United States,” a rare American series of prints with wonderful landscape backgrounds reminiscent of the Hudson River Portfolio. “Have you heard a Snipe yet?” is the sportsman’s greeting, during all those March days when the first warm breath of spring is felt from the south. But it is only after the subterranean ice in the meadows has been entirely dissipated that the snipe comes.
Alexander Pope
Origin:United States
Profession:Painter and carver
Born:March 25, 1849, Dorchester, Massachusetts
Died:September 1924, Boston, Massachusetts
As a youth, Alexander Pope carved and sketched animals around his home in Massachusetts. In the 1860s, he worked for his family’s lumber business. Pope studied carving, painting, perspective, and anatomy with William Rimmer, an important romantic-baroque sculptor, painter, and influential teacher of many Boston artists. From 1879 to 1883, Pope created many well-received carvings of game. Czar Alexander III of Russia acquired two of the carvings. In 1893, Pope began painting animal portraits and, later, pursued a career as a portrait painter. Eventually, he was considered one of the best Bostonian trompe l’oeil painters of the nineteenth century. The French term trompe l‘oeil means deception of the eye. Trompe l’oeil paintings appear so real that they trick the viewer into thinking they are seeing an actual scene rather than a painted one.
Pope is particularly well known for his illusionist paintings and wood carvings of birds, rabbits, and firearms hanging on slate-colored doors. Side by side in the JKM Gallery, the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s painted Hanging Grouse and carved Mallard Against A Woven Basket both are illusionist renderings of ducks strung up against slate doors.
Pope’s work is recognized in many private collections and museums, including the M.H. De Young Memorial Museum and the National Museum of Wildlife Art.
More on ALexander Pope Jr. from Massachusetts Vital Records:
born 25 March 1849
to Alexander and Charlotte C. Pope of Mill Street, Dorchester. Father was a lumber merchant born in Dorchester. Mother was born in Hingham.
When he married on 16 September 1873 at age 24, he was shown as a lumber dealer. His wife was born in Dorchester, Alice De Wolfe. Downer, age 21, daughter of Samuel Downer Jr. and Nancy M. Downer. Alice was born 14 August 1853 on Hancock Street, Dorchester.