Alexander POPE
Cork 1763 - London 1835
Biography
Alexander Pope was born in Cork, into an Irish family of artists that included his father, uncle, and three older brothers. By 1776 he was enrolled at the Dublin Art School, and he exhibited portrait drawings and paintings at the Society of Artists in Dublin in 1777 and again in 1780. Thereafter he seems to have returned to his native Cork for several years, where he produced a number of pastel portraits of officers of the 67th Regiment. By his early 20’s he had settled in London, where he spent much of his career, exhibited a total of 59 works at the Royal Academy between 1785 and 1821. Aside from being a talented portrait painter, draughtsman and miniaturist, Pope was also a professional actor, performing on the London stage from 1785 onwards. He appeared in tragic roles at Drury Lane and Haymarket theatres, as well as at Covent Garden, and was particularly known for his portrayals of Othello and Henry VIII. As one early 20th century writer noted of Pope, ‘He was endowed with good looks and a graceful bearing, and had, moreover, a voice of fine quality…He continued his portrait work during this period, and many of his sitters were, naturally, his confrères of the stage…it may be said that his theatrical success in no way led him to abandon his career as a professional portraitist, but rather rendered more wide and varied the circle of acquaintances from whom he formed his clientele.’ Among Pope’s sitters were members of aristocratic families in England, professional men such as barristers and writers, and fellow actors like Charles Kemble and Sarah Siddons, as well as a number of prominent Irish political figures. Pope was married three times, twice to actresses, and was twice widowed. His third wife Clara Maria, the daughter of the painter Francis Wheatley, was also a skillful painter of figures and flowers.
