William Bell Paterson

Identity:

William Bell Paterson was an art dealer based in Glasgow. He was the son of Andrew Paterson (1819-1907) and Margaret Hunter (1819-1901), and brother of the artist James Paterson (1854-1932). He married (1) Hilda Burnaby (2) Edith C.H. Browne.

Life:

He owned or handled several paintings by Whistler including Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room y034.

He opened a gallery at 33 Renfield Street in Glasgow in 1892, selling Barbizon, Hague and Glasgow School paintings. He opened a London branch at 5 Old Bond Street in 1900, briefly as a partner with Norman Forbes. Advertisements for exhibitions at 'Forbes and Paterson’s Gallery' at 5 Old Bond Street first appear in the Times in 1900; by 1903, the space is identified as 'W.B. Paterson’s Gallery'. In 1904, he sold the Glasgow business and moved permanently to London. Advertisements in the Times continue to list the Paterson Gallery at 5 Old Bond Street until 1931, when, on 12 May 1931, it was recorded at 22 Old Bond Street.

Bibliography:

Times, 29 June 1903, 1.

Glasgow University Library, http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/detail_p.cfm?NID=4696&AID=&CID= (acc. 2015)

Hamilton, Vivien, ed. Millet to Matisse: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century French Paintings from Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, in association with Glasgow Museums, 2002, p. 205.

Fletcher, Pamela, (project director), London Gallery Project, Bowdoin College, http://learn.bowdoin.edu/fletcher/london-gallery/data/pages/as584.html (acc. 2015)