William Thorne (1863 - 1956)

Born 20 Jan 1863 in Delavan, Walworth, Wisconsin, United States

Ancestors

Died 10 Jan 1956 at age 92 in Delavan, Walworth, Wisconsin, United States

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Biography

William Thorne is Notable.

William was born in 1863. He was the son of Nicholas Thorne and Maria Gaston. He passed away in 1956.

^[1]

"Known primarily as a portrait painter, William Thorne (1863-1956), was born and died in Delavan, Wisconsin. While working as a student, and illustrator - he spent much of his early life away from his home state. In the mid 1880s, he enrolled in evening classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 1887 and 1888, he attended the antique class of the National Academy of Design in New York City. While in New York, William executed portraits, to earn a living.

He studied at the "Académie Julian" (Paris, France) with Jules Lefevbre and Jean-Paul Laurens, also working with Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant. During his three years in Paris, Thorne's portrait clients were most often Americans living in France. Before returning to the United States, Thorne painted in "Etretat" in 1892 (Étretat is a sea-side village in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in north-western France.

Thorne settled in New York around 1902, establishing his career as a society portraitist at his Carnegie Hall studio. Among his sitters were the children of Andrew Carnegie and Jay Gould.

John Singer Sargent (painted a portrait of William in 1905, which is inscribed "to my friend Thorn"), and William Merritt Chase numbered among his more prominent artist friends. He married Margaret Grace Lowe in 1917.

During the second decade of the 1900s, Thorne returned permanently to Delavan, the city of his birth, building a replica of his Carnegie Hall studio. In this later period in his career, Thorne was referred to as the dean of Wisconsin portrait painters" (kuhmann.com).

Sources

1. ↑ Source will be added by James Stratman by 9 Apr 2019.

• Find A Grave: #89849266

• http://www.kuhmann.com/poetry/History/William%20Thorne%20-%20Portrait%20Painter%20&%20Illustrator.pdf