Harry Ives Thompson

He was initially trained as a merchant and helped operate the family grocery store; painting in his leisure time. Upon turning twenty-one, in 1861, he decided that he would rather pursue a career in art and took lessons from Benjamin Hutchins Coe (1799-1883), a landscape painter from Hartford.^[1]

Three years later, Coe retired and Thompson took over his drawing school in New Haven until 1867. His first public showing came at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.^[2] From 1877 to 1890, he was a regular exhibitor at the National Academy of Design in New York. He also produced numerous portraits of notable people associated with Yale University.^[1]

He occasionally painted in New Hampshire as well.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harry Ives Thompson.

• More works by Thompson @ ArtNet
• Portrait of Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. @ the US House of Representatives
• Thompson (Harry I.) West Haven Genealogical Papers