James Thom (17 April 1802 – 17 April 1850) was a Scottish sculptor; his sculptures of characters from Scottish literature were immediately successful.

Early life

Thom was born in 1802, son of James Thom, a farm worker, and his wife Margaret Morison; his birthplace was about a mile from Lochlea, where

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

lived for some time. While Thom was young his family moved to Meadowbank in the adjoining parish of

Stair Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical direction, vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps w ...

. With his younger brother Robert (1805–1895) he was apprenticed to Howie & Brown, builders of

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

, and, although he took little interest in the more ordinary part of his craft, he was fond of ornamental carving, in which he excelled.

Sculptures

While engaged upon a monument in Crosbie churchyard, near Monkton, in 1827, he attracted the attention of David Auld, a hairdresser in Ayr. Encouraged by Auld, he carved a bust of Burns from a portrait — a copy of the portrait by

Alexander Nasmyth Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

— which hung in the Burns Monument at

Alloway Alloway ( gd, Allmhaigh, ) is a village in South Ayrshire, Scotland, located on the River Doon. It is best known as the birthplace of Robert Burns and the setting for his poem "Tam o' Shanter". Tobias Bachope, the mason responsible for the cons ...

. It confirmed Auld's opinion of Thom's ability, and induced him to advise the sculptor to attempt something more ambitious. It was decided to create statues of Tam O'Shanter and Souter Johnnie, characters from Burns's poem '' Tam o' Shanter''; Thom, who resided with Auld, set to work on the life-size figures, which were hewn direct from the stone without a preliminary sketch. William Brown, tenant of Trabboch Mill, served as model for Tam; no one could be induced to sit for the Souter, whose face and figure were surreptitiously studied from two cobblers in the neighbourhood of Ayr. The statues were secured for the Burns Monument at Alloway, and when completed were sent on tour by Auld to Ayr, Edinburgh (where they were praised by

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

) and Glasgow. The profits, which were equally divided among the sculptor, Auld, and the trustees of the monument, amounted to nearly £2,000. They reached London in April 1829, and at once attracted great notice, the critics hailing them as inaugurating a new era in sculpture. Sixteen replicas, it was said, were ordered by private patrons, and reproductions on a smaller scale, but also in stone, were carried out by Thom and his brother. James Thom also produced statues of the landlord and landlady of the poem, which were grouped with the others, and several pieces of a similar class, such as "Old Mortality and his pony", which was conceived in 1830 while reading Scott's novel ''

Old Mortality ''Old Mortality'' is one of the Waverley novels by Walter Scott. Set in south west Scotland, it forms, along with ''The Black Dwarf'', the 1st series of his ''Tales of My Landlord'' (1816). The novel deals with the period of the Covenanters, ...

'' on board the packet-boat between Leith and London. A few years later a second exhibition of his work was organised in London, but proved a failure.

In America

About 1836 Thom went to America in pursuit of a fraudulent agent. Recovering a portion of the money embezzled, he settled in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Little Falls; the stonework and much of the architectural carving of

Trinity Church, New York Trinity Church is a historic parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Known for its history, location, architecture and e ...

, were contracted for by him. He purchased a farm near Ramapo,

Rockland County, New York Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...

, and seems to have abandoned sculpture. He died, of consumption, in New York on 17 April 1850. He was married and had a son, the painter James Crawford Thom, and a daughter, Ada Crawford Thom.

References

Attribution *

External links

James Thom Statues
''Burns Scotland'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Thom, James 1802 births 1850 deaths Scottish male sculptors 19th-century British sculptors Robert Burns