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John
Patrick
Studios
in Fife
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Studios
John Patrick was born in 1831 in
Buckhaven, Fife . He became a baker in Buckhaven, then moved to Leven
where he opened a business as a bookseller before becoming interested in
photography.
He
opened his first business at 71 High Street, Leven, at the age of
22, with a telescope mounted on the roof of this studio to study
the night sky.
[Scots Magazine Date?]
There is some doubt as to when his photography business began.
Manuscript records held in the National Library of Scotland give the first
two dates below for his photographic studios. The Fife Family
History Society gives the other two dates.
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1853- : Leven [NLSR]
- 1860- : Wemyss
[NLSR]
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1866?-67:
Leven
[FFHS]
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1867-84 :
Kirkcaldy
[FFHS]
He later opened a branch studio in
-
1890:
Kirkcaldy
[FFHS]
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Biography
However, the
Fife
Family History Society web site contains the following
informative brief biography of John Patrick:
"PATRICK, JOHN ; (1830-1923):
Leven, 1853?-1867, & Kirkcaldy, 1867-1884 & c 1890-1900; b
Buckhaven, 18 Jan 1830, he was originally a master baker in Leven;
although adv for his photographic business stating that it was est
in 1853, this date seems to refer to his baking business, for when
his dau, Mrs Jessie Patrick Finlay (1857-1933), the Fife poet and
author, was born in Leven on March 15 1857, he described himself
on the birth certificate as a "master baker".
By
the beginning of 1858, when he became agent for the "Fife Herald"
of Cupar, he seems to have given up baking for bookselling; his
bookshop was at 71 High Street, Leven; it was not until May 1866
that he disposed of his bookselling business to David Malcolm, and
set up a photographic studio in his own property at the Links of
Leven, which he called "Photo Villa;"
In
Aug 1867 he left Leven for Kirkcaldy and set up business at 194
High Street, removing to Wemyssfield in Oct 1869.
In
May 1884 he removed to 5 Coniston Road, Edinburgh, and sold his
studio in Kirkcaldy to R G Rettie; in Edinburgh, he took his son,
James Patrick, into partnership under the firm of JOHN PATRICK &
SON, later J PATRICK & SONS (1897-1912), and a branch was opened
in Kirkcaldy (Wemyssfield) in c 1890 (see Kirkcaldy Directory,
1894); he retired from business in 1912, and in 1917 went to
reside with his dau, Mrs J P Findlay in Kennoway, where he died
May 19 1923" |
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John
Patrick advertised on the back of his cabinet prints:
"Portraits
painted from life or from photographs. Local views and others throughout
Fife."
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John
Patrick
Studios in Edinburgh
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John
Patrick's company is listed in the trade directories as
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John Patrick & Son from 1890
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John Patrick & Sons from
1896.
He joined Edinburgh Photographic Society in 1886-87, describing himself as an
artist living at 35 Bruntsfield Place.
John Patrick died in
Kennoway in 1923.
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Andrew Young
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In 1868, at the age of thirteen, the artist and photographer,
Andrew Young
replied to an advert that read:
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ADVERTISEMENT
"Boy wanted, with a bias for drawing
Apply John Patrick, Kirkcaldy"
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The details above are taken from a leading article in
'The Practical Photographer', December 1895
[pp. 353-360]. This
article included:
a) photographs of Andrew Young, 1871, 1887, 1895
b) portrait and a landscape photos by Andrew Young
c) paintings by Andrew Young
d) a photograph of the
Granton-Burntisland ferry by Andrew Young
©
[The Practical Photographer, Dec 1895,
before p.367]
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John
Patrick
Photographs |
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John Patrick
produced a series of post cards of Swanston, a village in the Pentland Hills to
the south of Edinburgh, and a post card of Holyrood
Palace, Edinburgh. These he published in his own name.
©
He also photographed the 'Pictish' symbols in the
Wemyss caves. He wrote an account of these markings which appeared in the
Antiquarian Society's Proceedings and Publications
[A copy is held by the Royal Commission Royal
Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland]
[CL
Patrick]
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John Patrick
moved to Edinburgh opening a studio in 1884, specialising in
portrait and landscape photography in 1884. attracted to
Edinburgh by the literary connections [Scots
Magazine Date?]. The studio was
visited by many artists. John Patrick continued to run this studio
until shortly before the outbreak of the First World War
- sixty years a professional photographer!
John Patrick died in 1923 at the age of 92.
John
Patrick's photographs of these artists were hung around the walls of his studio. John
Patrick was also a journalist, writer and artist. Nineteen
of his watercolours were hung at the Royal Scottish Academy,
1880-86.
[Scots
Magazine Date?]
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John
Patrick and Thomas Carlyle |
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John Patrick met and photographed the philosopher and writer,
Thomas Carlyle in Fife in the autumn of 1874, when Carlyle was
aged 79.
Patrick
exhibited his Carlyle portrait at the National Exhibition in
Edinburgh in 1908. The photo is now held by Kirkcaldy
Public Library. Other copies were sold in America and
Carlyle hung a copy in Carlyle House, London. Carlyle went
on to photograph all the places in Scotland and London closely
associated with Carlyle.
[Scots
Magazine Date?]
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John
Patrick
Books |
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John
Patrick produced several
books:
-[
no
date]: "Photographic Views of the Fife
Coast"
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1890: "Photographic
Views of Kirkcaldy and Vicinity"
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1900: "Images
of Romantic Edinburgh"
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1904:
"Edinburgh
in Pictures"
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John
Patrick
Exhibitions |
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John Patrick entered
portraits and landscapes in the PSS Exhibitions in 1856, 1858 and 1864,
the 1886 International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art and 1890
EPS Exhibition.
He won a top award,
in the 1902 Dundee Exhibition for his portrait of Thomas Carlyle, taken in 1874.
[NLSR]
An
exhibition was held (when?) featuring 20 of John Patrick's Platinotype photographs from the Edinburgh Public Library Collection on
the subject of "The
Early Home and Haunts
of Robert Louis Stevenson"
[Derek Johnston]
[Edinburgh Evening News article: 6 Nov 1943]
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John
Patrick
Photographs in Collections |
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Entrance
to Portobello
Pier
©
Reproduced
by courtesy of Edinburgh City Libraries and Information Services
The
Entrance to Portobello Pier - Photographer John
Patrick.
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Skating in Edinburgh
The Scottish National
Portrait Gallery’s Collection includes an attractive photograph of skaters on
St Margaret’s Loch, Queen’s Park, Edinburgh, by John Patrick
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Golfing in Fife
John Patrick took some early photographs of golfers in Fife.
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Royal Visits to Edinburgh
Both
Edinburgh Public Library has many
photographs of Edinburgh by J (John or James?) Patrick..
These include photos of Royal visits to Edinburgh in 1893 and 1903 and a
photo of a parade of horses with The Duke & Duchess of York Driving up the
Mound. |
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Carved Stones
John Patrick, in 1902,
photographed carved stones in the caves of East Wemyss, Fife.
These stones had been discovered in 1865, but John Patrick was the
first to photograph them.
These stones were described by his
daughter Jessie Patrick in an article published in The Reliquary
and Illustrated Archaeologist. The photographs and
descriptions are now held by the Royal Commission on the Ancient
and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS).
Lesley M Ferguson,
RCAHMS |
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