His works include a large canvas of George IV's visit to Leith and three early paintings of football matches.

Carse started at the Trustees Drawing Academy of Edinburgh in 1801; here he studied Dutch painting, which influenced his later representations of interiors.

[2] By his early thirties Carse was exhibiting paintings in London at the Royal Academy and at the British Institution.

This was a rare visit by a reigning monarch to Scotland, which was arranged and organised by Sir Walter Scott.

[6] In the 1830s "Alexander Carse, portrait painter" is listed as living at 68 Abbey Hill, just north-east of Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.