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Sydney Lough Thompson (New Zealand, 1877-1973) JARDIN CONCARNEAU typed label on reverse oil on ca...

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Sydney Lough Thompson (New Zealand, 1877-1973) JARDIN CONCARNEAU typed label on reverse oil on ca...
Sydney Lough Thompson (New Zealand, 1877-1973)
JARDIN CONCARNEAU
typed label on reverse
oil on canvas
41 by 51cm., 16 by 20in.
Sydney Lough Thompson was a New Zealand born artist who spent much of his
working life in Brittany, painting alongside his good friend, the Irishman
William John Leech. The pair met in 1901 at the Académie Julian in Paris, where
within a short time after enrolling, Leech had won the coveted monthly concours
(a prize of 100 francs for the best student painting), and Thompson followed
with an admirable fourth place. Both artists greatly admired the French
Impressionists: according to an unpublished memoir written by Thompson’s wife,
they spent much time loitering in the Durand-Ruel Galleries and, "after buying a
postcard of a work by one of the Impressionists were free to view the rest of
the collection"1. In 1902 Thompson left Julian’s to settle in Concarneau and on
his encouragement, Leech followed within a year. Denise Ferran records that they
travelled together in 1904 first to London to view exhibitions of work by Orpen,
Sargent, John and Sickert, and then on to Dublin, where they both spent some
time recuperating from typhoid fever2. Thompson returned to New Zealand the
following year, but returned to Brittany in 1911, upon which he immediately
renewed his friendship with Leech, Roderic O’Conor and others of the expatriate
community. Indeed he remained good friends with Leech until his death in
Concarneau in 1973. Retrospectives of his work have been held in Christchurch
(1990) and at the Musée de Pont-Aven, near Concarneau (1992), and examples of
his work are contained in all major New Zealand galleries.
1 Quoted by Denise Ferran, William John Leech: An Irish Painter Abroad, NGI,
Dublin, 1996, p.29.
2 Ibid., p.43.
€4,000-€6,000 (£2,700-£4,000 sterling approx.)