ers. Cosmo Alexander, a
skilled portrait painter, born in Scotland, was his teacher for a
time. Charles Fraser (1782-1860), born in Charleston, South Carolina,
of Scottish ancestry, first studied law and retired with a competency.
He then took up art and achieved eminent success in miniature painting
and as a painter of landscapes, pictures of genre, still life, etc.
William Dunlap (1766-1839), artist and dramatist, founder and early
Vice-President of the National Academy of Design, was of Ulster Scot
descent. His family name was originally Dunlop. Robert Walter Weir
(1803-89), of Scots parentage, is best known for his historical
pictures, he being one of the first in America to take up this branch
of the art. "The Embarkation of the Pilgrims" (1836-40) in the Rotunda
of the Capitol at Washington is by him. Russell Smith, born in Glasgow
in 1812, was a scientific draughtsman and landscape painter. Two of
his finest landscapes, "Chocorua Peak" and "Cave at Chelton Hills"
were exhibited in the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876. His son,
Xanthus (b. 1839), was a well-known marine and landscape painter and
painted many of the naval engagements of the Civil War. James Hope,
born near Abbotsford in 1818, settled in New York in 1853,
distinguished as a landscapist, was chosen an Associate of the
National Academy in 1865. Alexander Hay Ritchie (1822-95), born in
Glasgow and educated in Edinburgh, was a most successful painter in
oils as well as an engraver in stipple and mezzotint. His paintings of
the "Death of Lincoln" and "Washington and his Generals," obtained
great popularity. As a portrait painter fine examples of his work are
"Dr. McCosh" of Princeton, "Henry Clay," etc. He also did a good deal
of book illustrating. Thomas Lachlan Smith (d. 1884), also born in
Glasgow, was noted for his Winter scenes. Two notable pictures of his,
"The Deserted House" and "The Eve of St. Agnes," were exhibited at the
Centennial Exhibition. Still another Glasgow artist, John Williamson
(1826-85), born at the Tollcross in that famous city, became an
Associate of the National Academy, and made the scenery of the Hudson
and the Catskills his special study as shown by his "The Palisades,"
"Sugar Loaf Mountain," "Autumn in the Adirondacks," etc. William Hart
(1823-94), born in Paisley, became an Academican in 1857, and was
afterwards President of the Brooklyn Academy and of the American Water
Color Society. James McDougall Hart (1828-1901), born i