ALEXANDER

See also:

• ALEXANDER RUNCIMAN (1736—1785)

RUNCIMAN (1736—1785)  , Scottish historical painter, was born in Edinburgh in 1736 . He studied at Foulis's Academy, Glasgow, and at the age of thirty proceeded to Rome, where he spent five years . It was at this time that he became acquainted with Fuseli . The painter's earliest efforts had been in landscape; he soon, however, turned to historical and imaginative subjects, exhibiting his " Nausicaa at Play with her Maidens" in 1767 at the Free Society of British Artists, Edinburgh . On his return from Italy, after a brief residence in London, where in 1772 he exhibited in the Royal Academy, he settled in Edinburgh, and was appointed master of the Trustees' Academy . He was patronized by Sir James Clerk, whose hall at Penicuik House he decorated with a series of subjects from Ossian . He also executed various religious paintings and an altar-piece in the Cowgate Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, and easel pictures of " Cymon and Iphigenia," " Sigismunda weeping over the Heart of Tancred,". and " Agrippina landing with the Ashes of Germanicus." He died in Edinburgh on the 4th of October 1785 . His works, while they show high intention and considerable imagination, are frequently defective in form and extravagant in gesture . His younger brother, JOHN RUNCIMAN (1744-1766), who accompanied him to Rome, and died at Naples in 1766, was an artist of great promise . His " Flight into Egypt," in the National Gallery of Scotland, is remarkable for the precision of its execution and the mellow richness of its colouring .