Thomas William Marshall (painter)


Thomas William Marshall was an English post-impressionist painter and water colorist, born on at Donisthorpe in England. He passed away on in Paris.
He painted landscapes, portraits, nudes and produced watercolours, in Paris, in Île-de-France, in Normandy, on the French Riviera and in Corsica. Between 1904 and 1914, He exhibited his work in Paris at the Salon d'Automne, as well as the Salon des Indépendants and also at the Nationale des Beaux-Arts. These art salons were at the peak of their glory, in this era, with well known painters such as Marquet, Modigliani, Sickert, Kandinsky, participating in them.

Biography

Thomas William Marshall was born in 1875 in Donisthorpe, Derbyshire in England. He was the son of Robert Aldred Marshall a wealthy mining engineer from Nottinghamshire who died in the Bullhouse Bridge rail accident, and Dorothy Ann Tarr. He is a first cousin of the rugby player Frank Tarr. Thomas William studied in both Oxford and in Cambridge.
Wishing to become a painter despite his fragile health, he left England to live in Paris in 1897 and enrolled in the Académie Julian. There he met the Canadian painter Albert Henry Robinson, who would become his student and friend. In Paris he was reunited with his English friends, also painters, such as Ernest Yarrow Jones. As of 1900, he began to participate successfully in some Parisian exhibitions. His studio was located at 3 rue Campagne-Première, he then moved to 51 rue de Sèvres, and then relocated to 49 boulevard du Montparnasse.
In 1904, he participated for the first time in the Salon d'Automne where he would show an average of five to six paintings or watercolours per salon, every year until 1913. He was named as a member of the Salon in 1908. During this time, he showed works at the Salon des Indépendants in 1906 and then from 1908 to 1914. He also showed his works at the Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1911 and at the London Salon in London from 1908 to 1914. Thomas William Marshall was one of the founding members of the London Salon with Walter Sickert.
Thomas William Marshall was a member of the Golf Club of Paris and played at the when he started. Therefore, he produced many drawings and caricatures inspired by this sport.
Due to his fragile health, he left for the Côte d'Azur and settled in Corse in 1908, where he produced a large part of his body of work. He transferred works he had created in Corsica onto canvas:landscapes and scenes inspired by daily life on the island back to Paris for exhibition. These works gained him much praise from the art critics of that era.
In 1910, Thomas William Marshall married Marie-Louise Désagullier who had been his companion and model for many years. He died prematurely from tuberculosis on in Paris, at the age of 38, at the height of his talent. He was cremated at cimetière du Père-Lachaise and his ashes are resting at the columbarium.
Wealthier than many of the contemporary artists of his time, he did not really need to sell much of his art to live ; as a result, he remained relatively unknown until his rediscovery by art critic in 1984. One of Thomas William Marshall's paintings, a landscape of Corsica painted in 1910, was selected by a specialized jury and art lovers, displayed at the Espace Pierre Cardin at the Champs-Élysées and was reproduced in colour in an edition of the magazine Paris-Match in December 1984.
Many exhibitions to honour his work followed: at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1986, at the Salon d'Automne in 1987 where an entire room was dedicated in tribute to him, and two personal exhibitions in Bastia in 1988 and in Villefranche-sur-mer in 1993. The Beauvais museum acquired a painting in 1987. Bastia and Villefranche-sur-Mer museums each have conserved one or more of his works in their public collections.

Works

Recognized by Jacques Foucart, general curator at the Paintings Department of the Musée du Louvre, the pictorial work of the English painter Thomas William Marshall, is both inspired by the last sparkling embers of the XIXth century and by the end of Impressionism. Composed of numerous oil paintings and watercolours, of rare quality, his work can be added to the post-impressionist and symboliste movements. Also certain pieces could be considered neo-Japonard or nabis. Regardless of how one classifies it, his work remains deeply original.

Exhibitions

Salon d'Automne (1904–1913 and 1987)

Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1904
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1905
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1906
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1907
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1908
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1909
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1910
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1911
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1912
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1913
Work exhibited at Salon d'Automne 1987
Tribute organized by Édouard Georges Mac-Avoy, President of the Salon d'Automne, at the time. 18 paintings were exhibited in a room, dedicated entirely to the former secretary T.W. Marshall, from October 23rd to November 8th 1987.
Work exhibited at Salon des Indépendants 1906
Work exhibited at Salon des indépendants 1909
Work exhibited at Salon des Indépendants 1910
Work exhibited at Salon des Indépendants 1911
Work exhibited at Salon des Indépendants 1912
Work exhibited at Salon des Indépendants 1913
Work exhibited at Salon des Indépendants 1914
Work exhibited at Salon des Indépendants 1986
Tribute to T. W. Marshall with six paintings exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris.

London Salon (1908-1914)

Work exhibited for the London Salon Allied Artist Association in London, at the Royal Albert Hall from 1908 to 1913 and at the Holland Park Hall in 1914.
Work exhibited at the London Salon, 1908
Work exhibited at the London Salon, 1909
Work exhibited at the London Salon, 1910
Work exhibited at the London Salon, 1911
Work exhibited at the London Salon, 1912
Work exhibited at the London Salon, 1913
Work exhibited at the London Salon, 1914
Work exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1911
Solo exhibition « Thomas William Marshall en Corse » organized at the Palais des Gouverneurs génois by the Museum of Corsican Ethnography under the distinguished patronage of Bastia City Hall. The exhibition catalogue was prefaced by the art critic with texts from Jacques Foucart, Robert Marshall, Jean-Marc Olivesi and Janine Serafini-Costoli.
Oil Paintings on canvas
Oil paintings on cardboards
Watercolours
Caricatures
Solo exhibition « Rétrospective Thomas William Marshall » of 18 paintings, organized at the Chapelle Saint Helme at Villefranche-sur-Mer. The exhibition catalogue was prefaced by Jacques Foucart, general curator at the Paintings Department of the Musée du Louvre. After the exhibition, the museum kept one painting within its public collection: « Reflet ».
Oil on canvas
Paris
Landscapes of Île-de-France
Normandie and Savoie
Villefranche-sur-Mer
Corsica
Watercolours
Oise Museum, Beauvais
Museum of Corsican Ethnography, Bastia
Museum of Villefranche-sur-Mer
Excerpts from critics published in the press for T.W.Marshall exhibitions: