George Thomson

BIO

George Thomson (1868-1965) was the brother of the famous and influential Tom Thomson, but an accomplished artist in his own right who took his own path towards notoriety. He initially studied Law at the University of Washington in 1901, but could not ignore the draw of the arts, enrolling in the Art Students League in New York before moving to Connecticut. Then for several years George located to Seattle where he helped establish the ACME Business College. It was at the ACME Business College that his brother Tom would join him to study penmanship for 6 months and work for several companies before returning to Canada having been spurned by a local Minister’s daughter.  George would remain south of the border until 1926 where he would return to Owen Sound and grow his fame adding the zeitgeist of Canadian landscape greats. Remembered for his sincerity and passion for art, he was a big believer in the idea that every artist needs the space to develop a style that reflects their own temperament and personality. Contrasting his brother, George’s work is more based in realistic depictions of landscapes, honest to the landscape he is recreating with a sense of peace and a calming blend of colour. George was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art and in many other major cities in Canada and the United States. His work is in the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Morgan Gallery of Hartford, Connecticut as well as in many public and private collections world-wide. Until his death in 1965, at the age 97, George was still actively painting and was known at that time as “Canada’s oldest living artist.”

ARTWORK