Arthur Tomson (5 March 1859 – 14 June 1905) was an English painter.

Biography

Tomson was born at

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

, Essex, on 5 March 1859. He was the sixth child of Whitbread Tomson by his wife Elizabeth Maria. From a preparatory school at

Ingatestone Ingatestone is a village and former civil parish in Essex, England, with a population of 5,365 inhabitants according to the 2011 census. Just north lies the village of Fryerning, the two forming now the parish of Ingatestone and Fryerning. Ing ...

in Essex he went to

Uppingham Uppingham is a market town in Rutland, England, off the A47 between Leicester and Peterborough, south of the county town, Oakham. It had a population of 4,745 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 4,853 in 2019. It is known for its ep ...

. As a lad he developed an interest in art, and on leaving school he enrolled in a course in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

. Returning to England in 1882. he settled down to landscape painting, working chiefly in Sussex and Dorset. His landscapes were poetic, and rather similar in sentiment to the art of

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including s ...

and

Edward Stott Edward Stott (24 April 1855 – 19 March 1918) was an English painter of the late Victorian to early twentieth century period. He trained in Paris under Carolus Duran and was strongly influenced by the Rustic Naturalism of Bastien-Lepage and ...

. Although he was at his best in landscape, cats were favourite subjects of study, and he occasionally painted other animals. At the New English Art Club, of which he was an early member and in whose affairs he took warm interest, he was a regular exhibitor, but he also showed at the Royal Academy from 1883 to 1892 and at the New Gallery. An excellent and characteristic example of his refined art is the canvas called ''The Chalk Pit'', which was presented by his widow to the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

. He was also an interesting writer on art, and his book on ''Jean-François Millet and the Barbizon School'' (1903; reissued in 1905) is sympathetic and discriminating. For some years he was art critic for the 'Morning Leader,' under the pseudonym of Verind, and he contributed to the ''Art Journal'' descriptions of places in the southern counties, illustrated by his own drawings. He illustrated ''Concerning Cats'', poems selected by his first wife Rosamund (Ball) Marriott Watson under the pen name, 'Graham R. Tomson' (1892). He died on 14 June 1905 at

Robertsbridge Robertsbridge is a village in the civil parish of Salehurst and Robertsbridge, and the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Hastings and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Royal Tunbridge ...

, and was buried in Steeple churchyard, near Wareham, in Dorset. Tomson married in 1887 his first wife Rosamund (Ball) Marriott Watson (1863–1911), writer of poetry, youngest child of Benjamin Williams Ball, whom he divorced in 1896, and who afterwards married Mr. H. B. Marriott Watson. Tomson married secondly in 1898 Miss Hastings, a descendant of

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-Genera ...

, who survived him with a son.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomson, Arthur 19th-century English painters English male painters 1859 births 1905 deaths People from Chelmsford 19th-century English male artists