Margaret Jordan Patterson
1867 -1950

Margaret J. Patterson is internationally known for her woodblock prints, in black and white or in color, examples of which are owned by the Smithsonian, Metropolitan Museum, Rhode Island School of Design, Cleveland Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Art, South Kensington Museum in London, and many others. Her earliest one person show in Europe was in Paris in 1913. James Bakker Gallery in Cambridge, Mass. gave her two retrospective shows in the 1980’s.  A retrospective exhibition of 50 of her paintings and prints, “Margaret J. Patterson: Master of Color and Light”, was mounted in 2006 at the Calhoun Museum of American Art in Cape Cod.

Patterson’s peers recognized her talent as an oil painter, but she became more renowned for her pioneer color woodcut printing in the United States.

She was born on the island of Java during one of the journeys her parents took, her father being a sea captain. She spent her early years traveling around the world and, as an adult, retained her penchant for travel. Her work as a teacher at Dana Hall prep school in Massachusetts left her summers free and, except for the war years, she spent each summer doing art in Europe. Initially, she went to northern Europe but, by 1909, she had discovered Spain with its brighter light. Her color palette changed tone. After WW I, she most frequently went to Italy where she interpreted the mountains and architecture in a modernist style with loose brushwork. During this time she also did her earliest black and white woodblock prints including the one you see here of a picturesque monastery garden in Capri.

“La Certosa, Capri”
woodblock print on heavy paper
# 3 out of an edition of 50
signed in pencil the margin
image size 7 ½” x 10 ½”
paper size 11” x 12 ½”
$ 625.00 unframed