From 1954 until 2004, Andrew McIntosh Patrick, who has died aged 90, worked at the Fine Art Society in London, when the firm was synonymous with its 1876 New Bond Street premises designed by EW Godwin. With an open fire, period furniture and walls often stacked vertically with paintings, it was like stepping into a posh private home albeit with the contents for sale. The atmosphere was augmented by a welcome from Andrew, seemingly always at his desk on one side of the room, and his colleague, Peyton Skipwith, opposite. Callers either felt immediately at home or somewhat confused by how unlike other galleries this was.
Born in Dundee, Andrew was the son of the Scottish painter James McIntosh Patrick and his wife Janet (nee Watterson). Andrew and his sister, Ann, grew up at ease in their father’s studio and with their parents’ circle of artists, writers and musician friends. Andrew was educated at Harris Academy in Dundee, prior to national service in Aberdeen. The family connection with the FAS dated from the 1930s, and it was through this that Andrew came to London to begin his career.
The managing director’s query, “I notice you don’t wear a hat. What are you going to do if you meet a client in the street?” encapsulates the atmosphere of the society in 1954, transformed by Andrew after he took the managing role in 1976. He brought Scottish painters to the FAS and for a period opened spaces in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Working with the art historian Wendy Baron, the FAS showed Walter Sickert’s work and Andrew was responsible for promoting Glyn Philpot and reviving the career of Gluck among other painters. When his partner, Tony Carroll, an Australian, joined the staff in the mid-70s, the FAS broadened its international reach, with exhibitions including Eastern Encounters (1978) and The Rediscovery of Greece (1979).
Although Andrew had no formal training, he developed an expert eye. For decades he had a flat within the FAS but when the time neared to his unwelcomed retirement, was able to buy a home near Trafalgar Square on the proceeds of three paintings in his private collection. His homes were furnished very like the FAS, the division between his working environment and private taste paper thin.
Between his retirement in 2004 and 2009, I recorded 17 sessions with Andrew for the National Life Stories’ oral history project Artists’ Lives. His last years were split between London and a home he built in Taroudant, Morocco. He was a loyal, warm and generous friend.
Tony died in the early 1990s. Andrew is survived by Ann and by his nephews, Julian and Andrew, and niece, Susannah.
