H 144.78 cm x W 119.38 cm x D 12.7 cm
A 3/4 length portrait of Thomas Kirkpatrick standing in front of broad red-toned drapery, facing slightly to the left. The figure sands with his right hand resting on a book beside a scroll on a table with a red cloth covering to his right; his left arm is held along his side, hand holding a folded sheet of paper at hip-length. The figure is wearing a long dark frock-coat, dark trousers, a dark waistcoat with a gold watch-chain, and white collared shirt with a white stock. The subject has medium brown hair parted on the side and combed over the top of his head, long sideburns, and grey eyes that are looking directly at the viewer. In the lower left background is a plain pillar on a plain half-wall, with a segment of sky visible beside it. The painting is signed "W. Sawyer - / 1861" in dark paint near the lower left corner.
The painting is housed in a mid-19th century gilt wood and plaster frame. Plain back edge; bead and flower outer edge, plain scotia; honeysuckle corners with foliate embellishments, crown-like outer corner, and foliate vines at sides on top edge, with elaborate acanthus and foliate side centres and simple acanthus top centre on swept rail; astragal, foliate bead, and cove to sight edge. Foliated spandrels in top corners.
Thomas Kirkpatrick, born near Dublin, Ireland, arrived in Kingston to study law and later became the town solicitor (1839-1846). He was elected as the Town of Kingston’s first mayor (shortly disqualified as a non-resident) and the City’s second mayor. Kirkpatrick served as Frontenac’s Member of Parliament in the first Canadian Parliament in 1867.
