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Vernon Thomas (artist)

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American artist
Vernon Thomas
A young white woman with dark hair in a bouffant updo, photographed in profileVernon Thomas, from a 1910 newspaper
BornVernon Thomas
September 12, 1894
Evanston, Illinois, U.S.
DiedApril 4, 1962
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Other namesVernon Thomas Rudd, Vernon Thomas Leigh
Occupation(s)Artist, illustrator

Vernon H. Thomas Kirkbride Rudd Leigh (September 12, 1894 – April 4, 1962) was an American artist, known professionally as Vernon Thomas after 1928. She specialized in portraits of children. Her works were exhibited internationally, and appeared on magazine covers in the 1920s and 1930s.

Early life and education

Vernon Thomas was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Herbert Alden Thomas and Evelyn Seavey Thomas. Her brother Rodney S. Thomas was an international traveler and businessman. She graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied with Charles Webster Hawthorne. While at the Art Institute, she performed in a Shakespeare-themed student production.

Career

Vernon Thomas made prints, watercolors, pastels, and oil paintings, mostly portraits of children, or illustrations of children at play. Her art appeared on the covers of magazines including The Woman Citizen in 1926. She created more than a dozen Good Housekeeping covers between 1934 and 1936. She was a member of the Chicago Society of Etchers, and exhibited her works in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and internationally. While in Chicago she worked with fellow printmaker Bertha Jaques. In 1928, she won the Mrs. Julius Rosenwald Purchase Prize at the Art Institute of Chicago exhibition, for "Cut-outs".

Personal life and legacy

Thomas married three times. She married fellow artist Earle Rosslyn Kirkbride in 1918. The Kirkbrides divorced in the late 1920s. She married Spencer T. Rudd soon after; he died by suicide in 1932. She moved to New York City, and married her third husband, publisher Maurice Chaffee Leigh, in 1945; he died in 1955. She died in 1962, in Hartford, Connecticut, in her late seventies. Her works are held by museums including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

References

  1. "Mr. and Mrs. Rodney S. Thomas". The Decatur Daily Review. 1934-08-19. p. 13. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Our cover artist" The Woman Citizen 10(May 1926): 32.
  3. ^ "Mrs. V. T. Leigh, Portrait Artist and Etcher, Dies". Hartford Courant. 1962-04-05. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Art Students Will Give a Burlesque on Shakespeare". The Inter Ocean. 1910-04-29. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Jewett, Eleanor (1928-11-25). "Watercolors by Eskridge Highly Praised". Chicago Tribune. p. 116. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "An Artist's Joyous Children; Mrs. Vernon Thomas Kirkbride's Ethings of Youth Depict Happiness". The Kansas City Star. 1927-09-18. p. 82. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Vernon Thomas (November 1934), Good Housekeeping, retrieved 2024-09-25
  8. Vernon Thomas (December 1935), Good Housekeeping, retrieved 2024-09-25
  9. Vernon Thomas (March 1936), Good Housekeeping, retrieved 2024-09-25
  10. Jewett, Eleanor (1927-12-07). "Three Exhibitions of Art Now on View Are Recommended". Chicago Tribune. p. 39. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Mechlin, Leila (1929-03-31). "Notes of Art and Artists; Etchings on View at Smithsonian". Evening star. p. 32. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "'The Joy Ride' by Vernon T. Kirkbride". The Los Angeles Times. 1928-03-04. p. 115. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Jewett, Eleanor (1932-07-24). "Art Institute to House Exhibition of Fine Arts for the Coming Century of Progress Exposition". Chicago Tribune. p. 36. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Awards in the Annual Chicago Exhibition". Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951). 22 (3): 38. 1928. ISSN 1935-6595. JSTOR 4112441.
  15. "Beatrice H. Kirkbride and Earle R. Kirkbride Papers". Philadelphia Area Archives. Retrieved 2024-09-25.
  16. "Ex-Secretary to Volstead Ends Own Life; Spencer T. Rudd Tells of Despondency in Note". Chicago Tribune. 1932-12-12. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Maurice Leigh". The Bangor Daily News. 1955-06-20. p. 25. Retrieved 2024-09-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "The Skippers" and "The Two-step", etchings by Vernon Thomas in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  19. "Summer", an etching by Vernon Thomas Kirkbride, in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art|Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
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