Pope Jr.

Alexander

Alexander Pope Jr. was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1849.  As a youth he sketched and carved animals. For his initial guidance he studied sculpture and anatomy with local Boston artist and teacher William Copley who also taught many other artists in the area. Pope essentially taught himself to paint.  He spent his entire life as a friendly fixture in and around Boston and eventually became a member of the famed art association the Copley Society of Boston.

Pope is largely acclaimed as an American sporting artist with works of animal still lifes.  He also worked as a portrait painter and became one of Boston’s best trompe l’oeil, French for “to trick the eye”, painters of his time.  Pope’s paintings in this style appear so real that they seem to be actual scenes instead of works of art.

Pope published two books of his work in 1878 and 1882 entitled Celebrated Dogs of America and Upland Game Birds and Water Fowl of the United States.  Both highly collected today, these books represent the definitive works of Alexander Pope Jr.

The work of Alexander Pope Jr. was collected by Czar Alexander III of Russia during the artist’s lifetime and is in many private collections, including the M.H. De Young Memorial Museum and the National Museum of Wildlife art.

(1849 - 1924)