William Thorne – Artist

William Thorne (1863-1956) was a 2nd cousin to Edwin, Samuel, Jonathan & William Thorne. Known primarily as a portrait painter, he, 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. Thorne entered the antique class of the National Academy of Design during the 1887-88 term, and won a medal for the first work he exhibited at the National Academy in 1888. After deciding to continue his artistic education abroad, Thorne traveled to Paris sometime around 1890. 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 - the site is best known for its cliffs, including three natural arches and the pointed "needle". These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists including Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet, and were featured prominently in the 1909 Arsène Lupin novel "The Hollow Needle", by Maurice Leblanc), and he also spent time in London. 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 i 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.

Below are a few William Thorne family portraits. If you have any family portraits by William Thorne and would like to have them included on the website, please contact the webmaster. For more information on William Thorne, please download an biographical sketch by Robert Kuhmann: William Thorne - Portrait Painter Illustrator. Robert lives in Delavan, Wisconsin and is the definitive expert on William Thorne.