This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Richard Earl Thompson was an American impressionist, much influenced by the French school, and a highly successful illustrator. He was a child prodigy at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art where he was a student of Frederick Grant. After that, he attended the Chicago Art Institute with Louis Ritman, who was a strong influence on his drawing, color, and composition skills.
To earn a living, he chose a career in commercial art, doing many back covers of the "Saturday Evening Post", especially while working with Haddon Sundbloom. Thompson also did World War II Warbond Posters.
In 1959, with commercial art being replaced by photography, he turned to a full-time career in fine art and divided his life between the woods of Wisconsin and the shores of the Florida Keys with his wife Mary Munn.
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20th Century landscape Impressionist, Richard Earl Thompson studied in Chicago at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art (1930-31) and the American Academy of Art (1932-1933) and the Chicago Art Institute (1935-1937). He was instructor of art at the American Academy of Art before he became a free-lance illustrator during the Great Depression for Anheuser-Busch, Standard Oil and Miller Brewing Company.
Leaving commercial art to paint outdoors, his first solo exhibition was at the Guildhall Galleries of Chicago (1959) and others followed at the Grinnel Galleries (IL), Art Originals Gallery (Milwaukee), Harriett Crane Galleries (OH) The Gallery (Palm Beach), J.P. Kelp Gallery (TX) and elsewhere.
Although critics called him "Wisconsin's Monet," he preferred to be his own man and did not want to be so categorized. Remaining somewhat of a recluse in order to find enough time to paint everyday, he was a member of the Palette and Chisel Club (Chicago) and the Salmagundi Club (NY). His solo museum shows include the Berstorm Art Center, Neenah, WS; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WS; the R.W. Norton Gallery, Shreveport, LA.
Until his death in 1991, Thompson maintained studios in Wisconsin and Florida and his son and namesake ran a thriving gallery that featured Richard Earl Thompson's work in San Francisco until 1988.
Biography: Richard Earl Thompson, American Impressionist by Patricia Jobe Pierce (San Francisco: Richard-Earl Publications, 1982)and a video by the same title, written & directed by Patricia Jobe Pierce (Whittier, CA: Findley Holiday Films, 1991).
Source: Pierce Galleries Inc
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