Identity:

Alfred Fowler Patten was a genre painter. He was the son and pupil of the portrait painter George Patten (1801-1865).

Life:

Patten specialised in historical genre, literary subjects, oriental scenes and country scapes. His works include Hamlet and Ophelia and The Fair Persian Tempting the Sheikh with Wine. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1850 to 1878, as well as at the British Institution, Society of British Artists, Royal Hibernian Academy, Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham and Manchester City Art Gallery.

In 1874 he was elected member of the Society of British Artists, a society which appointed JW its President in 1886. In 1885 he was among those who had promised work to the July exhibition of the SBA. At this time JW promised an etching The Fish-Shop, Busy Chelsea (K.264) to the first fifty subscribers of £5.5s to the SBA ballot [#09363]. Patten exhibited at the SBA until 1895.

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Wood, Christopher, The Dictionary of Victorian Artists, Woodbridge, 1871; Johnson, J., and A. Gruetzner, The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1880.