Portrait of John Bowes, Lord Chancellor, Alexander Pope (1763-1835). Pastel on paper, RDS Collection, Dublin.

Alexander Pope was born in Cork in 1763, the son of artist Thomas Pope, and he trained under Hugh Douglas Hamilton as well as at the Dublin Schools. In 1777 and 1780, he exhibited drawings and small portraits in crayon at the Society of Artists Exhibition. He visited Cork and practiced there as a miniaturist for a few years before moving to London. He showed regularly at the Royal Academy up until 1821 with many of his portraits being engraved. Over the course of his career, he moved away from small pastel portraits inspired by Hugh Douglas Hamilton to focus on neo-classical full length portraits. He was married three times and died at home in Bedford Square in 1835.

Over the coming weeks, leading up to the second anniversary of our exhibition 'Exhibiting Art in Georgian Ireland: The Society of Artists's Exhibitions Recreated', which opened at the City Assembly House in June 2018, we will be sharing some of the works of the artists whose works were reassembled in that exhibition.

The above text and research was compiled by Aoife Convery in 2018.