An Erudite Gentleman

This professional and erudite-looking gentleman watches intently with the hint of a smile on his lips. He wears a double-breasted navy blue coat with brass buttons and a black velvet collar over a white stock, his toupée powdered.

The portrait resides in the original gold frame, the reverse showing an aperture of plaited brown hair within a foiled blue glass surround.

The son of an artist, the young George Patten was probably encouraged to paint from an early age as he played in his father’s studio. That father son bond would have been strengthened by the early death of his mother when George was just 13 years old. George went on to marry Lucy Fowler and with her had a daughter and then a son who in turn took up painting as a career. Patten was appointed Portrait Painter in Ordinary to the Prince Consort. He died in March 1865 aged 63; according to his obituary he was “the oldest associate of the Royal Academy” and “the only artist to whom Paganini sat”, that portrait having been exhibited at the Great Universal Exhibition held in Paris in 1855.

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