Lot 61: Cosmo Alexander 1724-1772 , Girl with Squirrel and Girl with Lamb: A pair of portraits oil on canvas

each signed and dated C Alex r pingebat / AD 1770 lower left. Both in the original carved giltwood frames. oil on canvas

measurements each 28 3/4 in. by 24 in. alternate measurements 73 cm by 61 cm

Pam McLellan Geddy, "Cosmo Alexander's Travels and Patrons in America," The Magazine Antiques, November, 1977, Vol. CXII, No. 5, pp. 972-978, Pl. III - Pl. IV
Profile, The Valentine Museum, Vol. 13, No. 4, August 1976

A Scottish portraitist, Cosmo Alexander was in the American colonies between 1766 and 1772. He is primarily remembered as the teacher of Gilbert Stuart, who became his assistant in Newport, Rhode Island in 1769 and who accompanied him to Edinburgh in 1771. With emphasis on solid form, Alexander painted many portraits in the Colonies in Philadelphia in 1766; New York City in 1767; Philadelphia return in 1768; Burlington (New Jersey), Philadelphia and Boston in 1769; Newport (Rhode Island) in 1769-70, Williamsburg, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina. (Excerpted from: Peter Hastings Falk, Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975, 400 Years of Artists in America, Sound View Press, September, 1999)