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Ad Code: 4
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An example of work by Robert Alan Thom
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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Biography from AskART:
| Robert Alan Thom, artist, author and lecturer, was born March 4, 1915, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Max and Laurine Thom. He graduated from Port Huron (Michigan) High School in 1932. Having shown, early in life, an aptitude for art, he received further training at the Institute of Fine Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and under Robert Brackman of Noank, Connecticut.
After moving to Detroit in 1939, Robert Thom spent several years working in the art departments of Detroit Edison and General Motors Corporation before opening his own art studio in 1945. The studio was highly successful, serving many accounts of local and national prominence. Among these was the award-winning series of paintings on Americanism, commissioned by Bohn Aluminum and Brass Corporation and used in national advertising.
Another series that evoked commendatory recognition were his illustrations depicting the history of Standard Accident and Life Insurance Company.
Mr. Thom's services to Parke, Davis & Company led to the commission in 1948, to paint the forty original paintings in the series, "A History of Pharmacy in Pictures", a project that preceded "A History of Medicine in Pictures", a series of forty-five paintings. Mr. Thom embarked on a period of intensive research for the wide variety of facts and artifacts necessary before his brush could be put to canvas. It is estimated that he traveled more the 250,000 miles, searching for related material throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, visiting actual sites where events to be depicted in various paintings occurred.
These activities made such demands upon his time that Mr. Thom withdrew from his commercial studio in 1954, which by that time had grown to a staff of thirty-five people, to devote his full time and energy to the paintings of the historical series, working in the studio annex of his home in Bloomfield Hills, MI.
In the course of all this travel, he had the opportunity to make an extensive study of food and wine. His writings and illustrations on the subject have appeared in "Gourmet Magazine". Portraits and paintings by Mr. Thom are in collections all over the world, including the White House in Washington, DC. He is listed in "Who's Who in American Art" and was included in the New York Historical Society's documentary on art today called "Business, the New Maecenas."
In 1963, Robert Thom was commissioned by Michigan Bell Telephone Company to paint "The History of Michigan", which he completed in 1967. Following this, he was the inspiration for and collaborated on two series of historical paintings, "The History of Illinois", for Illinois Bell Telephone, which was completed in time for the Illinois Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1968, and twenty-four paintings depicting "The History of Graphic Communications" for Kimberly Clark Corporation in Neehan, Wisconsin, completed in 1971.
In 1975, Bob and his wife Nellie moved to Santa Fe, NM to pursue an interest in painting wild animals and western art. When health problems intervened, Bob and Nellie moved to Dallas, TX, to be close to their son William and their grandchildren. On a Christmas visit to Michigan in 1979, both of the Thoms were killed in an automobile accident near Alma.
Written and submitted February 2005 by Bob Thom, son of the artist.
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