Alexander Rossi Biography
ALEXANDER ROSSI
Corfu 1840 – 1916 London
Alexander Mark Rossi was a painter of genre and portrait subjects, specialising in images of children. Rossi was born in Corfu, the son of an Italian, Dr Mark Rossi, one of three judges who governed the Ionian Islands during British rule. The artist met his first wife Jane Gillow, on a visit to Preston in 1866 and spent his early career at the local art school there. In the early 1870s he moved with his young family to London (settling in 1875 in Shepherds’ Bush), and exhibited over 60 paintings between 1870-1903 at the Royal Academy, including perhaps his most celebrated work entitled Forbidden Books (1897). He also exhibited over 40 paintings at the Royal Society of British Artists and the New Watercolour Society