Patey, John (SCC Newsletter January 2010)

J. Patey c. 1790 - 1795?

An unrecorded artist

His work set beside that of his namesake Thomas Patey d. 1789

In her Book Mrs McKechnie records in Section Four (Artists who painted silhouettes on plaster) an artist called Thomas Patey (page 639), but there is no entry for a J. Patey. Although interestingly Mrs McKechnie in her entry on Thomas Patey ticks-off Arthur Mayne for referring to a John Patey in his book "British Profile Miniaturists" whilst using a work by Thomas as an illustration! Whether Mr Mayne at some point actually came across a silhouette by a J. Patey, we shall never know, or whether it was one of his ‘careless' mistakes!

Thomas Patey's work is rare as clearly that of J. Patey is as well. I will illustrate and describe Thomas's work at the end of this article for the purpose of comparing his style with that of his namesake. Jack Pollak was the first collector to draw attention to the work of Thomas Patey in an article for "The Connoisseur" published in March 1949 entitled "Fresh Light on Silhouette". The article was written to keep green the memory of the artists producing silhouettes since the publication of Mrs Jackson's "Dictionary" in 1938—as well as to draw attention to other unrecorded artists. In this article he referred to Patey"(as a "T”. was often mistaken for an "I", where the Christian name was not known) - he was amongst twelve ‘new' artists listed by Mr. Pollak.

Description of the two silhouettes

Both are painted on plaster and housed in pressed brass frames. The lady is backed with a partial label, but with enough information to definitely attribute her to J. Patey. lnitially the young man appeared to have no trace of a label, but with further probing and the removal of a number of loose pieces I found a few vital words—these proved that he had also had a full J. Patey label at some point on his reverse. The two works are painted in a black base colour and thinned black watercolour has been used for detail.

Note: (Below Pages are headed incorrectly, but are correct in their sequence for this article)

Patey Page 11

Her Label

The words that can be read are as follows - with guesswork in brackets.

....………L (Profiles or Profilist)

Likenesses jn Minia (ture) By J.PATEY from London.

...Wheatley's near the Bridge Donnybrook...

… chances have been approved by the N…..

England and

... Ancients and Moderns have ever held PAIN .... (ting)

SCULPTURE in the highest estimation and the only…..

Made has been the extravagant Demand for a good

By deliberate study and a peculiar Method J,P....(atey)

... ed that Objection, a PERFECT LIKENESS may.......

… 6s.6d.-14s.2d each set in ELEGAN...(T)

TIME OF SITTING ONE MINUTE ONLY

… ens may be had at M....en's, Dane

..... order, copies .in the ….

Clearly J. Patey was well practiced in selling his works and not slow to praise his own efforts! Many artists did not state prices on their labels ,but I think Mr Patey's prices compare with those of other artists working at this time. Miers's charges in 1789 were 7s. 6d to one guinea—although Mrs Lightfoot's were 4s.-7s. 6d and 10s. On ivory.

His Label

As can be seen from the photograph on the right there a number of bits of paper stuck to his reverse. I have not made any attempt to remove these as I noticed that there was a small patch of writing that was significant. This can just be seen in the middle of the reverse a little to the right. It has been enlarged below, You will notice that the words are towards the end of three lines on the lady's label quoted above. This proves without doubt that this is also the work of J. Patey—those few words being all that is left visible of the original label.

Unfortunately the fuller label on the lady does not give an address for the artist—all we know is that he came from London. I have written to the Dublin Library Archive Department (as Donnybrook is a suburb of Dublin) in the faint hope that it may have some information on Wheatley's and just may have a record of the anises visit. No reply so far. A Cistian name for the artist would be useful in tracing other records. One can speculate that the artist would have had other labels printed not giving a Dublin address—where are these and other works?

Patey Page 12

The Work of Thomas Patey d. 1789

Percy Higgs, who did much research for the Book—rooted out the brief details that we have for this artist. He `discovered' that his name was Thomas so that this fact gave him access to family records and wills etc. From these he obtained the artists address in London i.e. Argyll Road and the fact that he died in 1789. Also he found out that T. Patey only worked as a silhouette artist for 5 years between 1784 & 1788.

As you will see from the illustrations of his work (from the Book on page 671 illus. 1389 & 1390) he painted on plaster in a very distinctive style, which has no resemblance to the work of his namesake. He painted on flat plaster in solid black only—using dot & dashes for men's shirt frills and the ends of women's hair. Also, he had a very shallow line from the neck to the bust-line of his sitters.

His label which is illustrated below and is from the Book (page 671 illus. 1391). Again this bears no similarities to the label of J. Patey. On it he states that he used mechanical means to obtain his outlines. It is possible that J. Patey did likewise as he only allowed one minute for a sitting.

Summary & Conclusion

It is not possible for T. & J. Patey to be father and son, but they could have been brothers or no relation at all. We shall probably never know! However, we do know that their respective styles had nothing in common. It is exciting that a 'new' artist has come to light at this late stage and especially one working in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Also, an artist with some 'style'. It would be good to find out more about his life and work and I will continue to make an effort in this direction. In the meantime do let me know if any of you have works by either J. or T. Patey. Again a photograph would be very much appreciated, so that I can illustrate further examples in the Newsletter. It is possible that there are unlabelled examples in your Collections.