Sydney Lough Thompson
Sydney Lough Thompson (24 January 1877, Oxford

Oxford, New Zealand

Oxford is a small town of 1,716 people serving the farming community of North Canterbury, New Zealand. It is part of the Waimakariri District. Oxford is a linear town, approximately two kilometres long. For a time Oxford was serviced by the Oxford Branch railway, and had two stations, East Oxford...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 - 8 June 1973, Concarneau

Concarneau

Concarneau is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.The town has two distinct areas: the modern town on the mainland and the medieval Ville Close, a walled town on a long island in the centre of the harbour. Historically, the old town was a centre of shipbuilding...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 ) was a New Zealand artist.

Family

Sydney Lough Thompson was born in Oxford, Canterbury, New Zealand. He had eight siblings - five brothers and three sisters. His father had come to New Zealand as a young man and ran a general store in Oxford before becoming a sheep farmer. Thompson attended school until he was 13, after which he worked for his father on the farm.

Early Life and Training

It was Petrus Van der Velden

Petrus Van der Velden

Petrus van der Velden , who is also known as Paulus van der Velden was a New Zealand artist of Dutch descent. Van der Velden was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and died in Auckland, New Zealand, 11 Nov 1913...

 who first aroused Thompson's interest in art and in 1895 he enrolled as a student at the Canterbury College School of Art in Christchurch. Thompson also took lessons from Van der Velden. Van der Velden became a formative influence on Thompson and also encouraged Thompson's ambition to become an artist. Van Der Velden's influence can be seen in Thompson's portrait Lady Mclean (oil, 1907.) and also in The Crucifix (oil, 1902.).

Move to Europe

In 1900 he went to London and then Paris in 1901 where he became influenced by the French painting schools of that time. He returned to New Zealand and became an instructor at the Canterbury College School of Art between 1906 and 1910.

He married Maude Ethel Coe 28 March 1911 and went abroad again to London and France. He spent a lot of time in Concarneau, France where he developed a taste for painting scenes outdoors.

He returned to New Zealand in 1923 but still divided his time between his home and Concarneau, France. In New Zealand he painted many landscapes adopting the styles he learnt while abroad.

Styles

Sydney Thompson was trained under the realism school prevalent in Western Europe at the latter part of the nineteenth century. Most of his earlier paintings depict still lifes and portraiture.
After his experiences in France, Sydney Thompson adopted a post-impressionistic

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism...

style. His paintings became more colorful using more purer, brighter hues. His subject matter also changing to show the effects of outdoor light.

External links

• Works in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa