A pleasing landscape painting by Thomas Thomas of figures and cattle by a river. A farmer and his dog can be seen sat by a tree as a woman with a basket walks past a cottage.

Thomas Thomas was born in Hockley Hill, Birmingham on 20 February, 1831 to Thomas Thomas and his wife Ann. His father was a Japanner and Thomas initially followed in his footsteps before becoming a full-time artist. He married Selina Twiss on 25 August, 1850 at St Peter & St Pauls Church in Aston, Birmingham. The couple lived at 185 Great Hampton Row and went on to have 8 children. One of their sons, Frank Twiss Thomas also became an artist.

Thomas specialised in landscape paintings often featuring wood-lined fields and farmsteads, particularly of the Midlands and North Wales. He began exhibiting at the Royal Society of Birmingham Artists from 1854 until 1896, with a total of 26 works across the years. He is considered a member of the Birmingham School, whose fundamental aim was naturalist landscapes. His style is also very similar to that of the Norwich School.

Sometime toward the end of the 1850's he moved to Glasgow where one of his children was born. By 1871, he had returned to the Birmingham where he lived at 3 Linden Terrace, Ladywood. From the early 1880’s he lived at 56 Cape Hill Row in Harborne where he spent the next 20 years until his wife passed away. From around the turn of the century, he lived with his son Frank Twiss Thomas and his wife Ellen at Bearwood Road, Smethwick until his death in 1913. Examples of his work are held by the Birmingham Museums Trust and the New Art Gallery, Walsall.

© Benton Fine Art