Tom thomson birth and death
•
About Tom Thomson
The following brief Biography has been developed by David Huff, Manager of Public Programs at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound. The material has been compiled from various sources, including the Gallery archives, Charles Hill, Joan Murray and Stuart Reid.
TOM THOMSON
Tom Thomson, the brilliant, pioneering Canadian artist for whom the City of Owen Sound’s Art Gallery is named, was born near Claremont, Ontario, northeast of Toronto on August 5, 1877, the sixth of ten children born to John Thomson and Margaret Matheson. Two months later, the family moved to their new home, Rose Hill, near Leith, eleven kilometers northeast of Owen Sound. It was in this quiet rolling countryside, overlooking the shores of Georgian Bay that Thomson grew up.
Thomson was raised on the farm and received his education locally, though ill health kept him out of school for a period of time. He was said to have been enthusiastic about sports, swimming, hunting and fishing. He sha
•
Tom Thomson
After studying at the business school for six months, Thomson was hired at Maring & Ladd as a pen artist, draftsman and etcher. He mainly produced business kort, brochures and posters, as well as three-colour printing. Having previously learned calligraphy, he specialized in lettering, drawing and painting. While working at Maring & Ladd, he was known to be stubborn; his brother Fraser wrote that, instead of completing his work according to the direction provided, he would use his own design ideas, which angered his boss. Thomson may have also worked as a freelance commercial designer, but there are no extant examples of such work.
He eventually moved on to a local engraving company. Despite a good salary he left by the end of 1904. He quickly returned to Leith, possibly prompted by a rejected marriage proposal after his brief summer romance with Alice Elinor Lambert. Lambert, who never married, later became a writer; in one of her stories, she describes a y
•
Biography of Tom THOMSON
Tom Thomson
BIOGRAPHY
Tom Thomson was born in Claremont, Ontario in 1877. Unlike most of his Canadian contemporaries, he never travelled to Europe, and had no direct experience with original paintings by the great French Impressionists. His knowledge of Impressionism was strictly second-hand, garnered from his friends Arthur Lismer, A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, and J.E.H. MacDonald, and from reproductions. Until 1913, Thomson was employed as a graphic artist at Grip Limited, where he befriended J.E.H. MacDonald and, later, other artists who would form the Group of Seven in 1920. He lived primarily in towns and cities – in Owen Sound, Chatham, Seattle and Toronto – and only the last five years of his life were spent in protracted visits to Algonquin Park. He convinced artists such as Jackson, Lismer, Varley to join him. Thomson spent enough time there to create a unique body of work. The artistic promise of his late works