The Impressed Image
Gallery Featured Print
Ernest Heber Thompson (Dunedin, New Zealand 1891-1971 Long Crendon, Bucks.)
Painter, draughtsman, printmaker and teacher, attended Art School in New Zealand before becoming a
commercial artist and cartoonist for the Daily Times. Served with the New Zealand Army in World War I,
but was badly wounded, being sent to England where he settled. An Army scholarship of 1919 enabled Thompson to study
at the Slade with Tonks and Wilson Steer, then etching with Frank Short at the Royal College of Art and
later attend the Central School of Arts and Crafts. A regular prizewinner, he was engraving finalist, Prix
de Rome, 1923 and subsequently a faculty member 1941-66. Heber Thompson travelled widely in Europe and
exhibited prolifically at home and abroad. He was elected ARE in 1924 and RE in 1939.
He was an air raid warden in WW2, and subsequently commissioned to portray his fellow members of the police
and civil defence who had won bravery awards. He initially lived in Hampstead and taught art part-time
until the 1950's at various London schools.
His work appears regularly in Fine Prints of the Year from 1926, being published by Colnaghi. Thirty four prints are
listed by 1937, etchings and drypoints in equal numbers. Most are finely observed portraits, described by Salaman
as a bit 'painterly' for an etcher.
This particular print was inscribed as being from the personal collection of Harold Wright - for many years
curator of the Print Room at the British Museum and also connected with Colnaghis.
The Diligence Party
Drypoint 1927. Edition of 50
365x278mm
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