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Alexander Joseph Finberg was known as a painter, illustrator, print maker, art critic and dealer. He was born in Bethnal Green, London and educated at City of London College and King's College, London. He studied painting in Paris and then in the early part of his career he worked as an illustrator for the Illustrated London News and The Graphic. Finberg later became an art critic for the Manchester Guardian. In 1905 he was commissioned by the Trustees of the National Gallery to complete the inventory of the Turner Bequest, which Ruskin had begun in the 1850. In 1910 he published the two volume 'Complete Inventory of the drawings of the Turner Bequest'.
As an artist he exhibited paintings from 1888-1921 at the Dudley Gallery, New English Art Club, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Academy and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Finberg formed the Walpole Society in 1911 as a result of discovering, whilst he was completing the Turner Bequest inventory, that many artists of the 18th century lay unrecognised. He established the Society to rectify this lack of knowledge and to create awareness on earlier neglected periods. He was also Art Advisor to Inland Revenue on picture valuations. With his wife, the art historian, Hilda (née Ehrman), ran ran the Cotswold Gallery in Frith Street, London. His papers are held by the Courtauld Institute of Art. His biography, Life of J.M.W. Turner RA was published soon after his death in 1939.
