Adam Bruce Thomson

Adam Bruce Thomson OBE, RSA, PRSW (22 February 1885 – 4 December 1976) or ‘Adam B’ as he was often called at Edinburgh College of Art, was a painter perhaps best known for his oil and water colour landscape paintings, particularly of the Highlands and Edinburgh. He is regarded as one of the Edinburgh School of artists.

Adam Bruce Thomson
Adam Bruce Thomson – self portrait
painted c1950
Born
Adam Bruce Thomson

(1885-02-22)22 February 1885
Edinburgh
Died4 December 1976(1976-12-04) (aged 91)
Edinburgh
NationalityScottish
EducationEdinburgh College of Art
Known forPainting, Art education
North Bridge and Salisbury Crags, from the North West 1930s (Oil painting) "Edinburgh City Art Centre". Retrieved 30 May 2015.
Fishing nets – Stornoway 1940s (Water colour painting)
Mountains in the Scottish Borders 1950s (Oil painting)
Light through the Trees 1940s (Pastel)

Biography

Thomson was born in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal Institution School of Art and the RSA Life School. He went on to study at the Edinburgh College of Art between 1908 and 1909, where he gained technical expertise in etching, drypoint and lithography and in the difficult media of pastels and watercolours. Thomson's early years at the Edinburgh College of Art, had all the rigours of life classes, study of the antique and copying the Old Masters. Thomson graduated with Diplomas in Drawing and Painting, and Architecture before travelling to Spain, Holland, Paris on various scholarships during 1910. One of his earliest surviving oils, from 1910, depicts St. Martin’s Bridge in Toledo, Spain. In 1912 Thomson took up employment at the Edinburgh College of Art.

During World War I Thomson served in the Royal Engineers as a Second Lieutenant. Following the Battle of Arras he produced some poignant works on-the-spot and was able to record troops moving near Arras by the shattered façade of the Abbey of Mont St Eloi. Other works, including Reconstructing the Bridge, Montignies [1] were exhibited at the RSA in 1921 and, more recently, at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.[2][3][4][5] Also displayed was a finely detailed pen and pencil drawing of Zeppelin L 33 which crashed at New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough on the night of 23 September 1916.[2]

On 15 April 1918 Thomson married Jessie I. Hislop, the sister of his great friend and fellow Edinburgh artist Walter Balmer Hislop[6] and they set up home in Marchmont. The couple had three children born between 1919 and 1924. In 1919 Thomson resumed his staff position at the Edinburgh College of Art and would remain there until 1950. During this career Thomson taught etching, composition, still life to the painting school and colour theory to the art and architecture students. Regular visitors to the Thomson family home included his student and protégé William Wilson and also William Crozier. Other close colleagues from the Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy included Stanley Cursiter and David Macbeth Sutherland.[7] In the 1920s in particular Thomson's work was at its closest to that of Samuel Peploe, Francis Cadell and other contemporaries, notably John Guthrie Spence Smith[8] and Penelope Beaton.[9]

Thomson's oil paintings share some of the characteristics of his colleagues at the College in particular Sir William George Gillies and Sir William MacTaggart.[10] The early 1930s saw his series of monumental paintings of his home town including North Bridge and Salisbury Crags, from the North West, now in the Edinburgh City Art Centre, and The Old Dean Bridge exhibited at the RSA in 1932.[11][12] Throughout his life, Thomson painted extensively using watercolours and oils in and around Edinburgh, the Berwickshire coast, South West of Scotland on the Solway, the Scottish Borders and Abbeys (Kelso Abbey, Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh Abbey), Lismore, Benderloch, Mull, Stornoway, Iona, Ross and Cromarty, Plockton and elsewhere.[13][14] The archives of the National Library of Scotland hold some 24 of his sketchbooks, spanning around 40 years of work.[15]

He was awarded the OBE in 1963 and become president of both the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Society of Scottish Artists. His work has been exhibited recently in November 2013 [16] Edinburgh, 'Painting the Century',[17][18] at an exhibition of some of his pastels ('Adam Bruce Thomson - The Pastels'), in October 2015,[19] and in April 2017 at an exhibition of some of his watercolours (Adam Bruce Thomson 'Untroubled Certainty'),[20] all at the Scottish Gallery,[21] Dundas Street, Edinburgh.

Awards and honours
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References
  1. A Chasm in Time – Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century, by Patricia R. Andrew, Birlinn Ltd., 2014. ISBN 978-1780271903
  2. "Adam Bruce Thompson. Painting the Century. 6–30 December 2013". The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  3. Ferguson, Brian (26 October 2013). "Wartime drawings to be displayed at the Scottish Gallery". The Scotsman. Johnston Press. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  4. National Portrait Gallery – Remembering the Great War Retrieved 1 December 2014
  5. Macmillan, Duncan (9 August 2014). "Art review: Remembering the Great War". The Scotsman. Johnston Press. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  6. "W.B.Hislop Artist". Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2 July 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "John Guthrie Spence Smith". Archived from the original on 17 August 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  9. "Penelope Beaton". Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  10. "Images for Scottish art: Royal Scottish Academy: Adam Bruce Thompson". Education Scotland. Archived from the original on 7 February 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  11. Edinburgh City Art Centre
  12. "Edinburgh City Art Centre – Fine Collections". Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  13. Scottish Gallery – Adam Bruce Thomson
  14. "In the Artist's Footsteps".
  15. "Inventory: Adam Bruce Thomson" (PDF). National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  16. "The Scottish Gallery".
  17. The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh – Painting the Century Retrieved 1 December 2014
  18. Wall Street International – Art News article
  19. "The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh – Adam Bruce Thomson Retrieved 1 October 2019]" (PDF).
  20. "The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh - Adam Bruce Thomson - Untroubled Certainty Retrieved 1 October 2019".
  21. Scottish Gallery – Adam Bruce Thomson
  22. "Presidents and Secretaries". Society of Scottish Artists (SSA). Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  23. Paul Harris & Julian Halsby (1990). The Dictionary of Scottish Painters 1600 to the Present. Canongate. ISBN 1 84195 150 1.
  24. "Members: Bruce Thomson, Adam". Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. Archived from the original on 24 February 2015. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  25. "RSW Presidents". Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. Archived from the original on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  26. "News in brief". Glasgow Herald. 5 November 1956. p. 11. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  27. "New Water-Colour Society Officers". Glasgow Herald. 26 October 1959. p. 8. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
  28. Baillie, Martin (28 January 1971). "Painting in a medium that demands familiarity". Glasgow Herald. p. 12. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
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