Nevin Frederick (PAT OR PADDY)

Year working: 1912 - 1995

Pat Nevin used many different forms to sign his art – Frederic, Pat, Patrick Nevin or just plain Nevin. He also said that he signed some art Nevinsky because it was easier to become famous with a foreign name. Pat Nevin’s art falls into three periods early art, the second period as professional artist when he was working for Temple Press and other companies and the third period of later work from the 60’s and 70’s when he was doing retrospective art for the collector’s market. Nevin was born in Northern Ireland and was said to be interested in motoring from an early age going to the Irish TT races. He was employed by Temple Press in 1937 to take over from Bryan de Grineau where he worked for The Motor and The Light Car. This second period work is normally black and white, charcoal and gouache with lots of contrast and is normally signed just Nevin. This is upper case block lettering leaning forward. He covered lots of Brooklands races and several Grand Prix of the time including the Irish races and produced some excellent art. After the war he worked for a variety of magazines and comics including Swift, Girl and Eagle also advertising art and book illustration. Pat Nevin also completed posters for Cunard and British Rail. It is difficult to ascertain when the third period of his motoring art commenced but it was probably in the 1960’s when Pat Nevin started drawing and painting retrospective scenes from pre-war racing. It is not easy to date these works whether they are first, second or third period because often he used old papers and particularly his charcoal work often looks old. The big danger is Pat Nevin also added the date alongside his signature. This is the date of the event or race, not when the art was completed. The third period art is not as harsh as the earlier work plus he used a variety of signatures including the pre-war Nevin. During the third period he also painted several oil paintings of motor races, these are quite thickly applied on hardboard base. With increasing age he suffered eye problems and this can be seen in later works where there is some distortion and the cars do not sit on the road. After he died in 1995 Brooks Auctions (now Bonhams) sold the remnants of his studio during a sale at Ascot Racecourse. There is an excellent profile of Nevin and his non-motoring art at the reference below. This link also gives a listing of his book illustrations.