Patti Jack (1855-1908)

Martha Sharpe Forrester Jack was born 22nd July 1855 at Girthon Manse, Gatehouse, the oldest of 5 children. Parents were Rev Hugh Morton Jack, minister of Girthon Parish (born 1825, Avondale, Lanarkshire, died 1879 Gatehouse) and Martha Sharpe Forrester, (born 1833, Glasgow, died 1913 St Andrews). Hugh and Martha were married at Girthon in 1852. When in Gatehouse she is believed to have been helped and encouraged by artist brothers Thomas and John Faed. She had been educated in Paris. In the 1861 & 1871 census she was living at Girthon manse with her parents. Her father died in 1879. According to the 1881 census Martha, her widowed mother, and 3 of her sisters and her mother's sister were living in Dunblane. Presumably she re-visited her childhood home because she painted ‘Cottage Home’ (Girthon Kirk) in 1883. In the 1891 census Martha was with her mother in St Andrews and describes herself as a landscape painter. Between 1889 to 1900 Martha taught Fine Arts at University College, Dundee. She may have been the first female lecturer there. In 1898 Martha went to Ottawa, Canada to visit her sister Elizabeth and her husband Edward Prince. Martha taught and painted while in Canada and is recorded in the 1901 Ottawa census as living with the Prince family. In 1901 she returned to Scotland to visit her mother. In 1902 an art exhibition was held in Ottawa of Patti Jack's paintings. Many had Scottish subjects and a number were of the St Andrews area. All the paintings at the exhibition were sold. She later returned to Scotland and died at St Andrews on 23rd February 1908.

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"Several paintings by Scottish-born amateur artist Patti Jack are featured in our newest special exhibition, “A Local Canvas: Paintings from the Bytown Museum Collection.” Jack was visiting her sister Mrs. E. Prince in the spring of 1900 and painted several Ottawa scenes, including: “Inside of a Log Cabin,” “Chaudière Falls on Ottawa River in the Year 1900,” and a series of works documenting the Great Fire of Ottawa-Hull, which she witnessed in April of 1900." Source

 

Further details can be found at HERE including a photograph of the artist