Alexander Williams RHA, 1846 – 1930

Landscape and Marine painter, Alexander Williams was born in Monaghan in 1846. The family moved to Dublin in 1860, where he studied art at the Royal Dublin Society school. In 1870 Williams first exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy, and from then until 1930 showed no fewer than 450 works with the academy, not missing a single exhibition in sixty years. He was the first honorary secretary of the Dublin Sketching Club, founded in 1874, where he exhibited large numbers of works over half a century. A member of the choir of the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle, he also featured as soloist in the choirs of Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral. A leading figure in the art world of his day, he exhibited widely from Cork to Belfast, and of course in Dublin and London, working from his studio in Hatch Street, Dublin from 1893 onwards. He held his first London exhibition at the Modern Gallery in Bond Street, in 1901. He travelled extensively through Europe and exhibited as far afield as Canada, South Africa, Australia and Bermuda. ?Examples of his work are to be found in many of the National Collections, including that of the National Gallery of Ireland and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery.