William Alexander (1915, East Prussia - 1997) began his art career painting murals and decorating carriages for the German aristocracy. Except for a few formal lessons at an art school in Canada, Alexander was a self-taught artist.
William Alexander (1767—1816), an artist, was the son of a coachmaker at Maidstone. In 1784, he became a student of the Royal Academy, from which time until 1792, when he was appointed one of the draughtsmen to the embassy to China, he assiduously applied himself to the study of his profession, and obtained the notice and approbation of Sir Joshua Reynolds. He proceeded with the earl of Macartney as far as Peking, where he made the drawings for the plates which accompany Sir George Staunton's account of that embassy; and afterwards published also The Costume of China, illustrated by ninety-six coloured engravings, (2 vols. 4to. 1805-1815.)