Lot 43
£2,520
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Day Sale: 08 December 2022 | From 14:00
Signed, signed, inscribed and dated 1986 in the artist's hand on label verso, watercolour
James McIntosh Patrick is famed for his finely-observed paintings and etchings of the Angus landscape. A Dundonian by birth, from a young age he displayed a keen interest in art and was encouraged by his architect father to draw and experiment with etching. At the age of seventeen he enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art where, owing to his creative competence, he was admitted directly into the second year of the four-year degree.
It was here, studying under Maurice Grieffenhagen, that Patrick saw his first success, winning several prizes, gaining a post-diploma scholarship and acquiring important contracts for editions of prints. In the following years the etching market declined abruptly, which compelled Patrick to seek employment as a teacher at Dundee College of Art and to diversify into oil and watercolour painting.
Patrick’s career was interrupted in 1940 when he was called for service in the Camouflage Corps. As with many artists of the period, World War Two was to impact significantly on his style: travelling extensively with the military, Patrick had to paint ‘en plein air’ resulting in looser and more painterly and impressionistic mark-making. He nevertheless maintained his trademark attention to detail, and the ensuing style is evident in his landscape pictures from thereon.
After the War Patrick continued to paint the landscape around Dundee. He was elected an Associate member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1949, and was made a full member eight years later. His influence as a leading landscape artist can still be felt widely, both in Scotland and further afield, and his work is held in collections internationally.