Alexander Williams RHA
1846 – 1930
Alexander Williams was born in Monaghan in 1846, The son of a hat maker he was raised in Drogheda and then moved to Dublin .
He is known for his talent as a landscape and marine painting, but was also a successful taxidermist, with a significant collection of his birds and small mammals held in the Natural History Museum in Dublin. As a painter he was largely a self-taught and received just a few evening lessons in drawing at the RDS (Royal Drawing School).
He was one of the founder members and first secretary of the Dublin Sketching Club He also exhibited regularly with the Water Colour Society of Ireland, and contributed pictures to various other societies.
Following his election to the RHA as an associate member in 1884, he held his first solo exhibition at the Leinster Hall, Molesworth Street. He exhibited for a number of years in Bond Street, London and his work was shown in Switzerland and Canada and in America. At the World Fair in Chicago in 1893 he was represented by Sweet Dublin Bay, while at the St Louis World Fair of 1904, in association with the Congested District Board, he showed an extensive collection.
In 1899, Williams took a lease on a ruined cottage and three acres of land on the edge of Bleanaskill Bay, Achill Island. Over a period of years, he built a house and laid out a garden. .
He contributed occasional articles to the Irish Naturalist magazine, an ornithological diary (1909–1911) is held by the Ulster Museum, Belfast, and letters relating to Williams & Son are in the Natural History Museum, Dublin.
Collections and Public Institutions
The National Gallery of Ireland,
The Hugh Lane Gallery,
Crawford Art Gallery, Cork,
Monaghan County Museum and
Ireland’s Great Hunger Exhibition, Connecticut, USA.
Alexander Williams RHA