Original works of art

Alexander Pope was known as an animal painter and sculpture, and he did a number of large scale portraits of sporting dogs. Pope was a student of art from an early age, drawing animals by the age of seven. He was self taught with the exception of some study in anatomy with a Dr. William Rimmer, and by the time he was twenty, he was an accomplished wood carver.

Early in his career, Pope specialized in “trompe l’oeil” still lives, a painting convention which is intended to “trick the eye” by illusionistic effects. He also did portraits of people as well as studies of dead game. Pope spent much of his time studying animals in the zoological gardens in New York, Philadelphia and Bridgeport, Connecticut. He published a portfolio of prints entitled “Upland Game Birds and Water Fowls of the United States”, as well as the afore mentioned “Celebrated Dogs of The United States”.