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John Dabour, Artist

Dr. Allan Jensen recently shared an article from the University of Rochester’s Review Magazine. It was from the “Ask the Archivist” columnist about a painting in their collection, one Azariah […]
Dr. Allan Jensen recently shared an article from the University of Rochester’s Review Magazine. It was from the “Ask the Archivist” columnist about a painting in their collection, one Azariah Boody. What struck me was that MedChi has two portraits by the same artist… John Dabour.

Dabour, as he signs his paintings, was born in Turkey in 1837, and trained in Paris. He emigrated to Baltimore, year unknown. By the 1870’s, he was receiving commissions for some of Baltimore’s more well-known citizens, including Johns Hopkins and Daniel Coit Gilman. Although we have a painting of Gilman in our collection, it’s not by Dabour. 


Our two paintings are Dr. John Hawkins Patterson

and Dr. Charles Frick. 

Unlike the painting at Rochester, which is a pastel over a photograph, ours both appear to be paintings on their own.

While there are pages of biographical and laudatory information, as well as a good biography on Charles Frick

in the Medical Annals of Maryland Medicine, there is scant mention of John Patterson, who barely gets four lines!


Most of the information we have on Dr. Patterson comes from an article in the Maryland Medical Journal about the presentation of this painting to the Faculty by his daughter in 1907. 

In this piece, it is mentioned that the painting is by “well-known artist, J. Dabour.”