Patrick James McArdle (1915-1997), who was born in Nottingham, England, spent his formative years studying with the renowned French painter Amadee Ozenfant. At his first exhibition, his work was considered “…tres orignale et remarquablement fraiche de couleur,” by France Amerique. Upon emigrating from Ireland to the United States, McArdle received his formal education at the Art Student’s League in New York City where he was a pupil of Hans Hoffmann. He spent summers in Maine, studying with marine painter Jay Hall Connaway. Often compared to Matisse, McArdle’s figures exhibit a similar feeling of movement and presence, or as one critic for Art News put it, they are …”whimsical comments on equilibrium…and human manners.”
McArdle exhibited exclusively in New York City, and his paintings are represented in the private collections of eminent collectors from the mid twentieth century such as Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Joel Friedman, and Brahm Miranda, his agent. In his later years, McArdle lived in Harpswell, Maine, and used the scenes around him as his subject. McArdle’s paintings are included in the permanent collections at the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine, and the Art Museum at Indiana University in Bloomington.