Background
Thon, William was born on August 8, 1906 in New York City. Son of Felix Leo and Jane (Upham) Thon.
Thon, William was born on August 8, 1906 in New York City. Son of Felix Leo and Jane (Upham) Thon.
Student, Art Students League, 1924-1925; A.F.D., Bates College, 1957.
He spent his childhood summers camping on Staten Island. He later became a trustee of the Academy. In 1951, Thon received a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He taught painting at Ohio University, and he painted aspects of the Apollo Space Program for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Fine Arts Program.
William Thon had no formal art training apart from 30 days at the Art Students League. He discovered his individual style through trial and error.
He began painting in oil in a fairly realistic mode, but during his stay at the American Academy in Rome he discovered watercolor as a serious medium and began to loosen his style some. His work became more abstract, although the sources were still recognizable.
Perhaps the major breakthrough for his painting came with the discovery of an abandoned quarry near his home in Maine.
Here he painted spidery trees with rectilinear slabs of granite interspersed, such as in Midnight Quarry. While still based in nature, these were by far the most abstract of his paintings thus far. Thon died in 2000.
Served with United States Naval Reserve, 1942-1946. Member National Academy of Design (2d Altman prize for landscape 1951, 1st 1954, 67, Palmer Memorial prize 1944, Samuel F.B. Morse medal 1956, Altman prize for landscape 1961, Adolph and Clara Obrig prize 1965, Ranger Fund purchase award 1976, Ogden Pliessner Memorial prize 1988, William A. Patton prize 1991, Adolph and Clara Obrig award 1992), National Institute Arts and Letters (grantee 1951), American Watercolor Society (silver medal 1957, 67, Gordon Grant Memorial award 1963, gold medal of honor 1970, 79, Lena Newcastle Memorial award 1976, Caroline Stern award 1986), Audubon Artists (silver medal 1986, Lillian Judith Newman award 1992), Friendship Sloop Society.
Married Helen Elizabeth Walters, June 3, 1929.