Leslie Prince Thompson

Thompson was born on March 2^nd or 3^rd, 1880 in Medford, MA and he died in Newton, Massachusetts in 1963. His main influence and mentor was Edmund C. Tarbell with whom he studied at Boston’s Museum School from 1901-1904. He also studied figure paintings with E.L. Major at the Museum School. We went on to study at the Mass. Normal Art School, was awarded a Paige Scholarship and sailed for Europe to study the Old Masters and paintings by the French Impressionists. He came back to Boston and took private painting instruction from Tarbell and became well known for confidently handled impressionistic canvases of beaches, landscapes and genre interiors but he was most famous for his beautifully rendered portraits of woman.

When Tarbell and Benson resigned their positions as the directors of the Museum School, Boston, Thompson became a Painting Instructor (1913-1930). He maintained a studio at 30 Ipswich Street at the Fenway Studios, Boston from 1909 and taught many students privately from his atelier until 1947.

Thompson was a member of the National Academy of Design (ANA; NA 1937); the St. Botolph Club; Guild of Boston Artists; Tavern Club (Boston) and the Newport AA and his awards include a bronze medal at the St. Louis 1904 Exposition, the 3^rd Hallgarten Prize at the NAD (1911) and medals at the Newport AA (1914), the Pan-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco (1915), the PAFA (1919, 1927); Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition of Philadelphia (Silver Medal, 1926) and the Purchase Prize at the Boston Art Club (1928).

Bibliography: P.J. Pierce, Dictionary of Artists in the Boston School, Edmund C. Tarbell & the Boston School (p. 169); “Mr. Thompson’s Pictures,” Boston Herald, Jan. 26, 1915; Lee Cuthbert, Contemporary American Portrait Painters (p. 86); Who Was Who in American Art, vol. 3, pp. 3289-3290.