Biography from Charleston Renaissance Gallery:
| Thomas Wightman was born in Charleston, South Carolina; studied in New York with Henry Inman at the National Academy of Design, circa 1835; was active in Charleston intermittently between 1841-1865 and died in Charleston.
Wightman's training with Inman is more than apparent in the portrait style he employed upon his return to Charleston in the early 1840s. Inman was a master of the American grand manner image most popularly associated with the lush, elegant works of the Empire period (circa 1835-1850). In that same vein, Wightman's portraits have a great calming presence, defining the sitter in dignified and altogether proper terms.
However, during his period of study in New York Wightman was almost certainly exposed to certain emerging patterns in still-life painting that altered the restrained juxtapositions of neo-classicism. After 1840 still life art in this country, responding to certain international trends, became much more busy and abundant in detail. The sprawling tendrils of coiling vines conveys the powerful mood of a people of plenty, very much in keeping with the national spirit.
Thomas Wightman's brother William was also a still life artist whose works are represented in the Gibbes Gallery in Charleston, South Carolina. The brothers almost certainly shared techniques and styles.
Source:
"Antiquarian Pursuits", Robert M. Hicklin Jr., Inc. Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1992, p. 36.
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