(1773 - 1843), artist; b. Portsea, s. of a ship's purser; Paris 1787 - 9; RA schools 1790; pupil of Opie 1791; RA 1802 and keeper 1825 - 7.
1794 - 7 Parma, Bologna ( - 17 Feb. 1794 - ), Florence, Rome (by 1794 - 27 May 1795), Naples (Mar. - Apr. 1796), Rome (14 Jun. 1796 - 21 Feb. 1797), Naples (by May - 2 Jun.)
Thomson told Farington he was abroad 6 years, 'three years at Rome - 9 months at Vienna'.1 He was in Italy with his father (who had previously taken him to Paris) and he returned speaking 'French and Italian well & a little German'.2 On their journey to Rome he met in Parma the printer Bodoni, with whom he maintained a lively correspondence advising him on an English edition of James Thomson's Seasons.3 At Bologna he made copies of paintings ('Je suis occup? ? pr?sent dans la maison d'Armano ? faire des m?moires en couleurs des tableaux qui me plaisent le plus'), and he befriended the engraver Rosaspina.4
Little is known of his three years in Rome. He sent a portrait for exhibition at the RA in 1794 and Artaud mentioned an excellent caricature he made of an expedition on asses to Hadrian's Villa in the autumn of 1796.5 Thomson was amongst those who ostracised George Wallis, the English painter whose radical sympathies led to him being considered a republican 'spy'.6 Apart from a visit to Naples with Artaud in March 1796,7 Thomson remained in Rome until the military situation became too uncomfortable to pursue his studies 'avec plaisir ou avec profit', at which point he and his father went to Naples.8 With Artaud, Richard Duppa, R.R. Reinagle and Edward Swinburne, he visited Paestum and Capri in May/June 1797.9 The 'Bilious fevers' which had plagued him throughout his stay were cured in Naples with arsenic.(10) Father and son returned to England via Vienna and Germany.
1. Farington Diary (12 Mar. 1802). 2. Ibid. (7 Sep. 1803). 3. Bodoni cart., cass.58, has 7 letters from Thomson. 4. To Bodoni, 3 Apr. [no year], see n3. 5. Artaud letters MSS (5 Nov. 1796). 6. Farington Diary (23 Jan. 1807). 7. Artaud letters MSS (10 May 1796). 8. To Bodoni, 20 Feb. 1797; see n3. 9. Artaud letters MSS (2 Jun. 1797). 10. Farington Diary (7 Mar. 1804, 23 Jul. 1807).
