Ernest Thorne Thompson (American, 1897-1992)

Watercolor on paper, signed.

Sight size: 12.5” x 18.75”
Frame size: 20.5” x 26.75”

Born in Canada, painter and printmaker Ernest Thorne Thompson studied at the Massachusetts School of Art and the School of the Boston Museum. Eventually he became an art instructor and from 1922 to 1929 served as the director of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Notre Dame. He later relocated to New York and taught at the College of New Rochelle.

Thompson spent summers in Bristol, Maine where the rocky landscape served as a ongoing source of artistic inspiration, evidenced by this sensitive watercolor painting. With rough, dry brush strokes, Thompson describes an overcast day on a marsh. Two men consider how to safely navigate their boat through low waters, surrounded by flat rocks and rough grasses.

Though Thompson spent most of his life and career on the East Coast, he maintained strong ties to Indiana. He was a member of the Indiana Art Association as well as the American Federation of Arts. He painted murals for public buildings throughout the state, including the “Madonna of Sorrows” mural for the Holy Cross Seminary at Notre Dame; and his work is represented in the permanent collections of the Wightman Memorial Gallery at Notre Dame.