Thompson was born in Middleboro, Massachusetts, in 1814. He was one of three artist children of Cephas Thompson, portrait painter, of Middleboro, Massachussets, and Olive (Leonard) Thompson. His father, who thought that one artist in the next generation would be enough, gave his instruction only to Cephas Giovanni. Encouraged, however, by his sister Marietta, who had learned to paint miniatures, Jerome painted in the attic at Middleboro a likeness of a cousin, a divinity student. When he discovered this, his father in anger smashed both canvas and easel, whereupon Jerome left home with his sister and set up for himself in Barnstable as sign and ornamental painter.
Career
One of his early sitters was Daniel Webster, who had a house at Marshfield. Having saved a little money from his sign-painting and portraiture, Thompson went with his sister to New York, where both met with considerable success, she as a miniaturist, he as a depictor of rustic scenes, usually combining landscape and figures. He first appeared in New York directories in 1835.
In 1852 he went to England, where he studied the pictures of Turner and Hogarth and painted portraits of several of the nobility. Upon his return he conducted a farm at Mineola, L. I, gaining distinction as a gardener as well as artist. He was a deeply religious and moral man, keeping regularly a "Book of Advice" for his own edification. He made many sketches and studies in the Massachusetts Berkshires and Vermont, and in the far West. Some of his paintings of historic, literary, and sentimental subjects were used as "copy" for lithographic and chromolithographic reproduction, as were his "The Old Oaken Bucket, " "Home, Sweet Home, " "Scenes of My Childhood, " "Coming through the Rye, " and "Woodman, Spare that Tree. " A long and somewhat amusing criticism of his picture, "The Hay Maker, " was contributed by "Amateur" to A Critical Guide to the Exhibition at the National Academy of Design (1859).
Achievements
After his death, his country place at Glen Gardner, N. J. , the National Academy of Design, of which he had been elected an associate in 1851, paid him a glowing tribute as "a most excellent and worthy man, deservedly honored in his life and sincerely mourned in his death". It is conceivable that there may at some time be a rediscovery of the merits of Jerome Thompson as a painter; at this writing (1935) he is well-nigh forgotten except by collectors of old lithographs.
Connections
He was married twice: on March 23, 1839, to Maria Louisa Colden, and on April 19, 1876, to Marie May Tupper, an artist. He had one son.
