Alexander Fraser

(b Edinburgh, 7 April 1786; d London, 15 Feb 1865). Scottish painter. He studied at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh, where he was a contemporary of David Wilkie. He first exhibited at the Associated Society of Artists in Edinburgh in 1809 and at the Royal Academy in London in 1810. From 1813 he worked as an assistant to Wilkie in London and he later specialized in painting the still-lifes in such larger compositions by Wilkie as the Irish Whiskey Still (1840; Edinburgh, N.G.). Fraser also painted in his own right, producing such small-scale, genre pictures as Scotch Fair (c. 1834; Dundee, McManus Gals). Characterized by the high quality of the still-life detail, these paintings were directly derived from Wilkie's early work in theme, though in execution they reflect the increased richness of his later style.

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