When the late Samuel Isham spoke of Alexander's art as "introducing certain new elements" he may also have had in view his flat manner of painting, which allowed the rugosities of the canvas to give their note of quivering life in the total, and at the same time did away with any disturbing reflections of a too polished surface.

In considering the salient side of his art, one must not overlook the male portraits (Rodin, Whitman, A. B. Frost, Fritz Thaulow, and others), in which, while giving his own sensitive appreciation of personality rather than the searching, vigorous depiction of a Sargent, he has, in more than one case, offered strong, straightforward characterization with only incidental decorative effect.

Furthermore, the indicated qualities of his intensely personal viewpoint found application equally well in mural paintings, his decorations in the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, and the series "Evolution of the Book" in the Library of Congress. Speaking of his Pittsburgh decorations, C. H. Caffin wrote: "they are unequivocally modern," which coincides with W. S. Howard's remark of Alexander's art in general, that "with him poetic sentiment and the spirit of modernity show no inconsistency. He sees beneath the dull crust of life, and familiar things take on a new and finer meaning.” And in this strain one recalls the statement that while here he was once considered essentially French in his tendencies, in Paris he was looked upon as typically American. Perhaps we may ascribe to this Americanism the easy turn to stage scenery designing a few years ago (for "Chantecler"), and furthermore the inventiveness which produced a new form of scenery, compact and light, doing away with wood and other heavy material.

There is more. As Miss E. L. Cary has put it: "The place filled by Mr. Alexander in the art life of America was far more important than is indicated by his accomplishment in painting, graceful and dignified as that accomplishment is. His relation to his fellow artists and absorption in their welfare, his interest in art education in the public schools and in the use of museums by the children of America, his efforts toward amalgamating true culture with the democratic ideal, . all are elements in his influence which has been widely exercised in his own country." Parenthetically one may note also the fact that all this. was accomplished by one who "shared with Whistler the sensibility of a too fragile physical endowment."

Mr. Alexander's interests brought him into active and conspicuous membership of various institutions and associations. He was a member of the board of trustees of The New York Public Library and chairman of its art committee; a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; president of the National Academy of Design; vice-president of the American