Ida Kirkpatrick studied art at the Royal Female School of Art and also at the Academie Julian in Paris, and was one of two sister artists (Ethel KIRKPATRICK being her sibling) visiting in St Ives in the 1890s. It is suggested, that aside from the various artists the sisters may have met in Paris who also visited the Cornish artist colonies, they may also have been visiting an Irish-born relative, Lily KIRKPATRICK, who had made her home in St Ives from 1894.

The sisters were also regular visitors to Polperro during the 1890s.

Ida Marion Kirkpatrick was the eldest daughter of Thomas Sutton Kirkpatrick of Coolmine, Dublin (1833-1895) and Mary Anne Rosa Marriott of Paddington, London. Her mother having been sent back in her pregnancy to England from India (Army Service of father), due to a cholera epidemic, Ida was born in St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, at her grandmother Marriott's home.

On leaving the Army, her father entered the Government Prison Service as a Deputy Governor (Cold Bath Fields Prison, Clerkenwell), where their second child, Ethel Alice KIRKPATRICK was born. From 1878 the family lived in Exeter, Devon, where their father was the Governor of Exeter Prison. From there they moved back to London as TSK took on the governorship of Newgate Prison, and then ultimately Wormwood Scrubs. 

In preparation for retirement from HM Prison Service (1892), the Kirkpatricks built a new home for the family at Harrow on the Hill (The Gables) and this is the address that Ida and Ethel used as their exhibiting/sending address, though it is evident from reports and guest lists that they also visited St Ives with some regularity. In 1895, the year their father also died, a large studio was built behind the main house at The Gables, where the remaining family continued to live. Ida and her sister Ethel also maintained visiting ties for over twenty years with the art colony of Walberswick, as recorded in Painting at the Edge.

During her career Ida Kirkpatrick exhibited frequently at the Alpine Club Gallery and with the Society of Women Artists, but also at the RA (6) and elsewhere.  Her titles include A Cornish Quay and The Pier Lamp, indicating that Cornwall was reflected in her work. The artist died at Harrow in 1950.

A correspondent (2020) has been in touch to tell us of a watercolour by Ida Kirkpatrick in her possession, entitled 'St Ives' and dated 1904. A further correspondent in 2020 has advised us of two paintings by Kirkpatrick inherited from his grandparents. And in the same year we have heard of a portrait of a correspondent's great-grandfather by this artist.