E. Gertrude Thomson

E. G. Thomson - Momus 1880 Manchester Central Library

Emily Gertrude Thomson (1850–1929) was a British artist and illustrator.

She was the daughter of Alexander Thomson (1815–1895), a professor of Greek and Hebrew. She studied at Manchester School of Art and became a member of the Royal Miniature Society. In 1878 she was approached by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) to illustrate some of his books, including Three Sunsets and Other Poems: she also designed the cover for The Nursery "Alice", and became a friend of Dodgson and wrote a short biographical memoir of him. After studying at the Manchester School of Art she attended the studio of Frederic Shields and they became lifelong friends. Emily also studied for some time at Messrs. Wedgwood’s works at Etruria in Staffordshire painting on china.

She exhibited in Manchester, Liverpool, Brussels and Canada, Manchester Art Gallery and the V&A own her works.

At various points of her career she painted portraits, illustrated books and designed stained glass.

Stained glass

Emily designed four of the Britomart Windows at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, including the "Lady Knight"

Emily’s stained glass windows can be seen at St. John the Divine, Brooklands, Cheshire, and Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Cheltenham.

The Britomart Windows at Cheltenham Ladies’ College are based upon six pictures taken from Edmund Spenser’s allegory of the The Faerie Queene. They were produced by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Emily designed four of the windows including the Lady Knight and Frederic Shields designed two – the first and the fifth.

Illustrations

The Fairies, illustration

Emily became an illustrator with numerous different commissions - one being: The Fairies – A Child’s Song, written by William Allingham who was part of the Rossetti Circle.

The Fairies was one of Dodgson’s favourite books. When he saw Emily’s work he contacted her and asked her to do some illustrations for him, but she took so long on the cover for The Nursery "Alice" that in the end the book went to press initially without it. In between Emily's front and back covers, it contained twenty illustrations by John Tenniel which were coloured by Miss Thomson.

Emily and Dodgson not only became working colleagues, but the closest of friends right up to Dodgson’s death.

Portraits

Emily produced many fine portraits and was a member of the Royal Miniature Society.

Emily drew a number of Russian refugees for illustrations in Charles Rowley’s book “Fifty Years of Work Without Wages.” Prince Kropotkin was one of these.

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  Charles Rowley and Frederic Shields in his garden, photographed by Emily Thomson

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  Miniature of Lewis Carroll.

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  Prince Kropotkin, drawing

References

• Cohen, Morton N and Wakeling, Edward (2003), Lewis Carroll and his illustrators, Macmillan, London, pp. 229–231
• Thomson, Susan W (2007), Manchester's Victorian Art Scene And Its Unrecognised Artists, Manchester Art Press, Warrington. ISBN 978-0-9554619-0-3

External links

• Works by or about E. Gertrude Thomson at Internet Archive
• Works by E. Gertrude Thomson at Project Gutenberg