Artist

John Alexander McDougall

Portrait of John Alexander McDougall
Portrait of John Alexander McDougall

American, 1810–1894

John Alexander McDougall was an American Romanticism painter. 5 works are cataloged here, principally at Metropolitan Museum of Art, most of them watercolors. John Alexander McDougall was born in Livingston.

John Alexander McDougall (c.1810–1894) was an American painter and photographer, known for his portrait miniatures. Born in Livingston, New Jersey, he studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City, and lived for much of his life in Newark, New Jersey. McDougall was good friends with painters George Inness and Asher B. Durand, as well as writers Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe, whom he painted.

His miniatures, some of which were unusually small, are found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He died in Newark on July 29, 1894. He had a daughter and five sons, including the cartoonist Walt McDougall, the artist John A. McDougall Jr. (also a miniaturist), and Harry C. McDougall, proprietor of the Newark Sunday Call.

Works by John Alexander McDougall

Collections represented

Catalog records compiled from museum open-access collections; the artworks shown are in the public domain. Spotted an error in this record? Tell us.