A critic among artists and collectors
Born in Paris in 1859, Alexandre studied at the lycée in Versailles and entered the world of Parisian art journalism. He frequented the café de la Nouvelle-Athènes and wrote for papers including L’Éclair. In 1894 he helped establish the satirical illustrated journal Le Rire, bringing artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Abel Faivre and Charles Léandre into its pages. The following year he succeeded Charles Yriarte as the critic reporting on the Salon for Le Figaro.
His books helped establish reputations as well as record them. Honoré Daumier, l’homme et l’œuvre appeared in 1888, combining biography with illustrations and catalogues of works. L’Art du rire et de la caricature followed in 1892, with a cover by Willette. Alexandre’s interests extended from paintings and sculpture to the apparently disposable images of magazines and advertising. He was also a collector: works by Renoir, Cézanne, Maurice Denis and Émile Bernard passed through his collection and are documented by the Musée d’Orsay.
Alexandre was a founding member of the Salon d’Automne in 1903 and curator at the château of Compiègne from 1908 to 1913, before becoming an inspector of fine arts. During the First World War he investigated damage to French monuments on an official commission. The resulting Les monuments français détruits par l’Allemagne appeared in 1918; a contemporary review describes an inventory arranged by locality, recording both the importance of each monument and its destruction. He died at Brain-sur-Allonnes in 1937.
