Alexander Grant

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1770

Cosmo Alexander (American, born Scotland, 1724–1772)

Status: On View, Gallery 168
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Cosmo Alexander
Title: Alexander Grant
Place: Scotland (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1770
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed recto, right-bottom, on base of column, in brown paint: "Alexr p[inxt] A D 1770"; inscribed recto, middle-left, on letter, in black paint: "To / Alexander Gra[nt] / (Late of Jamai[ca)]"
Dimensions: 127.7 × 101.6 cm (50 1/4 × 40 in.)
Credit Line: Ada Turnbull Hertle Fund
Reference Number: 1977.2
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/93780/manifest.json

William Dunlap, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States vol. 1 (C.E. Goodspeed and Company, 1918), 197–99, 202.
Lawrence Park, Gilbert Stuart, An Illustrated Descriptive List of his Works, vol. 1 (William Edwin Rudge, 1926), 25, 357.
Art Association of Newport, Retrospective Exhibition of The Work of Artists Identified with Newport, Rhode Island Tercentenary, exh. cat. (Art Association of Newport, 1936), 10, cat. 11.
James Thomas Flexner, America’s Old Masters (Viking Press, 1939), 259–61.
Virgil Barker, American Painting (Macmillan, 1950), 117.
James Thomas Flexner, “Gilbert Stuart, ‘Primitive’,” Antiques 67, no. 3 (Mar., 1955): 233–35 (ill.).
Gavin Maitland Goodfellow, Cosmo Alexander: The Art, Life, and Times of Cosmo Alexander (1724–1772), Portrait Painter in Scotland and America (master’s thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1961), 157, cat. 55, pl. 19 (ill.).
Gavin Maitland Goodfellow, “Cosmo Alexander in America,” Art Quarterly 26, no. 3 (Autumn, 1963): 309–20, fig. 5 (ill.).
“Notes,” Bulletin of the Newport Historical Society 48, no. 1 (Winter, 1975): 260–62 (ill.).
Pam McLellan Geddy, “Cosmo Alexander’s Travels and Patrons in America,” Magazine Antiques 112, no. 5 (Nov., 1977): 972–77.
Milo M. Naeve, The Classical Presence in American Art (Art Institute of Chicago, 1978), 15, cat. 18 (ill.).
Milo M. Naeve, “Cosmo Alexander’s Portrait of Alexander Grant,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 72, no. 1 (Jan.–Feb., 1978), 8–10 (ill.), https://www.jstor.org/stable/4104026.
“The Classical Presence in American Art,” The Magazine Antiques 114, no. 3 (Sept., 1978): 496–506 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 71–75, cat. 18 (ill.).
Michael J. Boonstra, “Descendants of ‘King’ David Chesebrough of Newport, Rhode Island, With Clues to the Identity of His Son-In-Law, Hon. Alexander Grant, Esq., of Scotland, Newport, Nova Scotia, Jamaica, and London,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 156, no. 624 (Oct., 2002), 372–88 (ill.).

Stonington, CT, Stonington Village Improvement Society, Exhibition of Early American Portraits, Aug. 20– , 1925, cat. 4.
RI, Art Association of Newport, Retrospective Exhibition of the Work of Artists Identified with Newport, Rhode Island Tercentenary, July 25–Aug. 16, 1936, cat. 11.
RI, Newport Historical Society, permanent galleries, Sept. 18–1974–Sept. 21, 1976.

David Chesebrough (1702/3–1782), Newport, RI, and Stonington, CT, 1770 [father-in-law of the sitter; this and the following according to letter from Dr. Charles M. Williams to Robert C. Vose, Jr., c. 1970; copy in curatorial object file]; by descent through the family to his great-grandson, Deacon David Chesebrough Smith (1782–1833), Stonington, CT, 1808; by descent to his daughter, Betsey Chesebrough Williams (1806–1860; born Betsey Chesebrough Smith, also Mrs. Charles Phelps Williams, Sr.), Stonington, CT, 1833; by descent to her daughter, Bessie S. Sherman (1832–1915; born Bessie S. Williams; also Mrs. Ezra Lewis Sherman), Chicago, 1860; given to the Stonington Historical Society, Stonington, CT, 1916 [letter from Dr. J. H. Weeks to Dr. C. Williams, Dec. 23, 1916; copy in curatorial object file]; consigned to Vose Galleries, Boston, by Oct., 1970 [Antiques Oct., 1970, 561]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1977.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

On View

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

Explore Further

Suggested Terms

On View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Inscriptions

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Exhibition History

Provenance

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.