Nigel Thomson (1945–1999) was an Australian artist who won the

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

twice. Known for satirical paintings of Australian society. He studied at the

Julian Ashton Art School The Julian Ashton Art School was established by Julian Ashton in 1890 as the "Academy Julian", (perhaps a reference to the Académie Julian in Paris) has been an influential art school in Australia. For a long time it was known as the Sydney Art ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and later taught artistic composition at that institution. He was art tutor at the

Royal Academy of Art The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. He won the Archibald with ''

Chandler Coventry Chandler ("Channy") Phillip Coventry (1924–1999) was an Australian grazier, art collector, gallerist, art dealer, and art patron and was involved with the establishment of the New England Regional Art Museum. Early life Chandler was born at a ...

'' in 1983, and ''

Barbara Blackman Barbara Blackman ( Patterson; born 22 December 1928) is an Australian writer, poet, librettist, broadcaster, model and patron of the arts. In 2004, she donated $1 million to a number of Australian music organisations, including Pro Musica, the A ...

'' in 1997. Thomson's painting of

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987. White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...

's long-term partner,

Manoly Lascaris Emmanuel George "Manoly" Lascaris ( el, Μανόλης Λάσκαρης; 5 August 191213 November 2003) was the life partner of the Australian novelist and dramatist Patrick White. Lascaris met White while they both were servicemen in the Second ...

was rejected from the 1995 Archibald and hung in the

Salon des Refusés The Salon des Refusés, French for "exhibition of rejects" (), is generally known as an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, but the term is most famously used to refer to the Salon des Refusés of 1863. Today, by ...

. He won the

Sulman Prize The Sir John Sulman Prize is one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, having been established in 1936. It is now held concurrently with the Archibald Prize, Australia's best-known art prize, and also with the Wynne Prize, at the Art Gallery ...

in 1983 with ''Marat, The Unsophisticated will be Shocked by the Depiction of your Death: or, the Artist Answers His Critics''. This painting was based on

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

's famous painting ''

Death of Marat ''The Death of Marat'' (french: La Mort de Marat or ''Marat Assassiné'') is a 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting the artist's friend and murdered French revolutionary leader, Jean-Paul Marat. One of the most famous images from the e ...

'' showing

Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...

dead in a bathtub. He jointly won the Sulman Prize in 1986 along with

Wendy Sharpe Wendy Sharpe (born 1960 in Sydney) is an Australian artist who lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She is the only child of British parents and has a Russian Jewish heritage. Her father is the writer and historian Alan Sharpe. She counts ...

, for ''The State Institution''.

External links

Australian art gallery
Official Website: http://www.nigelthomson.com 1945 births 1999 deaths Archibald Prize winners 20th-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian male artists Academic staff of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague Julian Ashton Art School alumni Australian portrait painters Australian male painters Visual artists in late 20th-century Australia {{Australia-painter-stub