En Plein Air Sketch

George Thomson

George Thomson was born in Towie in Aberdeenshire and began his career as an architect in Glasgow. His style as a painter was influenced by the techniques of the Old Masters and he also excelled as a natural painter en plein air as the present work demonstrates.

In 1882 he entered the Royal Academy Schools and he first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886. He became a member of the New English Art Club and in 1895 was appointed as Lecturer in Perspective at the Slade School of Art. Both here and at Bedford College (where he worked from 1899 until his retirement in 1914) Thomson became an influential teacher at a time when the standard of the British art school was at its height.