Alfred Wordsworth Thompson (American 1840-1896)

Lake Scene in Western Maryland

Oil-on-canvas, signed lower right and dated “1861”

Painting Size: 8 ½”” x 16”
Frame Size: 12.5” x 20”

Thompson was a landscape, historical and portrait painter, born in Baltimore where he studied law with his father. In 1859 Thompson decided to become and artist and opened a studio in Baltimore. During the first year of the Civil War (1860) he worked as a combat artist for Harper’s Weekly and the Illustrated London News, primarily illustrating battles in Virginia. In 1861, the year this painting is dated, he left to study in Paris at the École des Beaux Arts with Gleyre, Lambinet and Pasini. He also traveled to Italy and Germany before establishing his studio in New York City in 1868. He made several return trips to France, Spain, North Africa and the Mediterranean. In addition to his travel landscapes, many of his exhibited works were of colonial revolutionary subjects.

Thompson was a founding member of the Society of American Artists and a member of the National Academy of Design. He exhibited extensively including at the Paris Salon, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the Paris Expo of 1878 and the National Academy of Design.

Sources:
Falk, Peter, ed. Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975
Wright, R. Lewis. Artists in Virginia Before 1900

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