Adam Bruce Thomson

Adam Bruce Thomson
Adam Bruce Thomson – self portrait painted c1950
Born	Adam Bruce Thomson (1885-02-22)22 February 1885 Edinburgh
Died	4 December 1976(1976-12-04) (aged 91) Edinburgh
Nationality	Scottish
Education	Edinburgh College of Art
Known for	Painting, Art education

Adam Bruce Thomson OBE, RSA, PRSW (22 February 1885 – 4 December 1976) or ‘Adam B’ as he was often called at Edinburgh College of Art, was a painter perhaps best known for his oil and water colour landscape paintings, particularly of the Highlands and Edinburgh. He is regarded as one of the Edinburgh School of artists.

Thomson was born in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal Institution School of Art and the RSA Life School. He went on to study at the Edinburgh College of Art between 1908 and 1909, where he gained technical expertise in etching, drypoint and lithography and in the difficult media of pastels and watercolours. Thomson's early years at the Edinburgh College of Art, had all the rigours of life classes, study of the antique and copying the Old Masters. Thomson graduated with Diplomas in Drawing and Painting, and Architecture before travelling to Spain, Holland, Paris on various scholarships during 1910. One of his earliest surviving oils, from 1910, depicts St. Martin’s Bridge in Toledo, Spain. In 1912 Thomson took up employment at the Edinburgh College of Art.

During World War I Thomson served in the Royal Engineers as a Second Lieutenant. Following the Battle of Arras he produced some poignant works on-the-spot and was able to record troops moving near Arras by the shattered façade of the Abbey of Mont St Eloi. Other works, including Reconstructing the Bridge, Montignies were exhibited at the RSA in 1921 and, more recently, at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Also displayed was a finely detailed pen and pencil drawing of Zeppelin L 33 which crashed at New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough on the night of 23 September 1916.