Lot 804: THOMAS CLEMENT THOMPSON RHA (1780-1857) Self

THOMAS CLEMENT THOMPSON RHA (1780-1857) Self Portrait Oil on canvas, 108 x 81cm Thomas Clement Thompson was born in 1780 and according to Walter Strickland was probably a native of Belfast. He was admitted to the Dublin Society drawing schools at the age of sixteen. His career began however as a miniature painter in Belfast and Dublin and after developing a reputation in this field he abandoned it in order to concentrate on portrait painting in oil. He acquired a good practice painting, as Strickland put it, many persons of distinction. Thompson was one of the founding members of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1823 and exhibited regularly himself up to 1852. Another self-portrait where he represents himself, palette in hand, before an easel on which is his portrait of George IV, is in the collection of The National Gallery of Ireland.