John White Alexander
John White Alexander | 1856–1915 | Repose 1895 | Oil on canvas | 132.7 x 161.6cm | Anonymous Gift 1980 (1980.224) | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York | Photography courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Repose 1895
In 1875, John White Alexander (1856–1915) moved to New York from Pennsylvania where he worked as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly journal. He left for Europe in 1877 and enrolled at the Royal Academy in Munich. He joined fellow American artist Frank Duveneck on a trip to northern Italy and met James Abbott McNeill Whistler in Venice. He returned to New York in 1881, and travelled to Spain, North Africa and Great Britain before settling in Paris with his wife in 1891.
He exhibited in the Salons of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts during the 1890s, and achieved considerable success both in Europe and America. Repose 1895 captures the elegance and slightly provocative sensuality of French taste in the 1890s. The unidentified model is languorously posed in a sumptuous interior, with the curves of the furniture and folds of her dress providing an arabesque frame for her own sinuous form.
Alexander stands a little apart from other Americans in Paris – his particular sympathy for the decadence of the French aesthetic was never modified for a more conservative American taste.
