William Cave Thomas - Laura at Avignon

[Laura at Avignon] c. 1852

born 1820, fl. 1838 - 1884.


http://www.artnet.com/artist/583940/william-cave-thomas.html

signed with monogram l.c.
oil on canvas
11 x 14 3/4"
exhibited RA in 1852

William Cave Thomas is remembered chiefly today for being on the fringe of the Pre-Raphaelite circle. He is generally credited with the name of the PRB journal, The Germ, and he was a close friend of Ford Madox Brown, appearing frequently in his diary (published 1981). In 1848 they shared a studio and Brown described Thomas as a 'wonderful fellow I hardly know what to make of him his talents are so wonderful and varied.' His work, which is now rare, is in a severe Germanic style, as the present example shows. Having attended the RA Schools in the late 1830s, he went to Munich in 1840 to study the work of the Nazarenes, entered the Munich Academy and worked under Hess on the frescoes in the Basilica. Two years later he returned to take part in the Westminster competitions, for which his training ideally equipped him and in which he twice won premiums. He exhibited at the Royal Academy (1843-62), the British Institution and elsewhere, continuing to concentrate on historical, literary and allegorical themes. Three papers by him on 'The Influences which tend to retard Progress of the Fine Arts' were published in the Builder in 1848, and a pamphlet, Pre-Raphaelitism tested by the Principles of Christianity: An Introduction to Christian Idealism, appeared in 1860.