| TITLE
| James Gates Percival |
| CREATOR | Alexander, Francis, 1800-1880 |
| DATE | 1820-1830 |
| DIMENSIONS | 37 x 31.5 in. (in frame) |
| ORIGINAL FORMAT | Painting |
| MEDIUM | Oil on canvas |
| DONOR | Gift of Dr. Nathaniel Augustus Fisher |
| DATE OF ACCESSION | 1850 |
| LOCATION | Providence Athenæum: Art Room |
This work painted by Francis Alexander depicts the American poet and geologist James Gates Percival.
Alexander studied under the painter Alexander Robertson, who co-founded the Columbian Academy of Painting in New York. In 1820, he returned home to Connecticut and worked painting portraits. After meeting Alice Brown Mason, the widow of James Brown Mason of Providence, Alexander was introduced to her friends, many of whom later posed for portraits. After painting for such famous sitters as Noah Webster and President Andrew Johnson, his portraits commanded increasingly higher prices.
This painting originally hung in the office of Hiram Fuller in Providence’s Greene Street School. In 1850, Dr. Nathaniel Augustus Fisher donated this painting to the Athenæum. In 1881, the painting, along with several others, was stolen from the library - it was later recovered in Brooklyn and returned to the library.