Ambrose
Patterson
His Life & Art
The first authoritative monograph on the significant Australian-American modernist — from bohemian Paris at the fin de siècle to the Pacific Northwest, tracing a life lived entirely in paint.
By Jane Alexander · ISBN 978-0-6467-3365-4
The Artist
A protégé of Nellie Melba, a peer of Matisse — and one of the most overlooked figures in Australian modernism.
The life and work of painter, printmaker and teacher Ambrose Patterson is ripe for the telling. A protégé of diva Nellie Melba at the fin de siècle, and substantially French academy trained, the young Australian artist was ensconced in bohemian Paris during one of its most significant epochs.
At the first infamous Salon d'Automne in 1903 he exhibited alongside Matisse, Bonnard and Rouault, and in the 1905 salon he was in the thick of it when the Fauves burst onto the scene. Influenced by the first-generation French Impressionists, Patterson's critical reception was extraordinary — distinguishing him from most of his contemporaries.
By 1916 he had moved to Hawaii, San Francisco and finally Seattle, where he became the Pacific Northwest's first modernist link to Europe. Seldom predictable, perpetually curious, he tried murals, Cubism, Abstraction — and in his last years returned full circle to Impressionism, producing remarkable paintings of light-filled studio interiors and still lifes.
Career Timeline
The Book
A high-quality hard-cover monograph richly illustrated and painstakingly researched — the first authoritative reference on Ambrose Patterson.
A handsome, meticulously researched, scholarly tome, Ambrose Patterson: His Life & Art is a must have for collectors, researchers, art historians and critics. Hard-cover, on a coffee-table scale, its 240 pages are richly illustrated with more than one hundred photographs, paintings and prints including double page spreads of several major paintings by the artist. Comprising more than 100,000 words presented chronologically in eighteen chapters and detailed appendices, it draws extensively upon myriad primary sources and family and institutional archives. A ripping good read, this important publication spotlights not only Patterson’s immersion in key artistic coteries in Paris, Brussels, Melbourne and Seattle but also seminal epochs in modern art history in the early and mid-twentieth century.
Production Credits
The Author
Jane Alexander
Writer · Researcher · Curator
Jane Alexander grew up surrounded by paintings by her great-great uncle Ambrose Patterson. He was a younger brother of her great-grandmother Louisa Braithwaite, who with her husband William, acquired a large collection of works by Patterson. By descent, many of these remain in her extended family's collections.
A writer, researcher and curator, Jane worked in the public galleries sector of Victoria for more than thirty years, holding directorships of the McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park and the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. Her interest in Patterson initially resulted in a minor thesis towards a Master of Arts, followed closely by a touring exhibition of his works in 1992–1993.
In the past five years she has undertaken extensive research and written this illuminating monograph — the first authoritative and comprehensive reference on this significant Australian-American artist.
“With unfettered access to family archives and thousands of primary sources, the author's scholarly work will enlighten readers, collectors and museum professionals alike.”