Dick was the son of Abijah Snider Thompson and Vera Ruth Koster. He married Mary Munn Hayes June 25, 1938 at Maywood, Cook County, Illinois, and they raised three sons, two of whom are still living.
Dick began to draw at the age of eight, making pencil sketches of things he observed. His parents bought him oil paints for Christmas, and family lore has it that he had completed his first oil painting by the time they arose. He enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, then at age 18 in the American Academy of Art. The next year he opened his first studio. He worked a number of years as a commercial artist, while doing oil paintings as a sideline.
But by the end of the fifties, photographs were rapidly replacing original art for advertising. This fact, coupled with his feeling that he could do oils as well as those he saw exhibited at Chicago's Art Institute, led him to foresake commercial art. He traveled the world with his photographer son Bruce, painting everything he saw. He went through many lean years, living on commissions and spending considerable time trying to persuade galleries to display his work.
In 1878, in conjunction with his son Richard Earl Jr., he opened his own gallery in San Francisco, to display his own paintings and those of other impressionist artists, and at last he began to get the recognition he deserved. He spent the prime years of his life doing what he loved most: fishing and travelling, observing nature and life, and painting all the way. At age 76, he was still going strong when beset by the cancer that ended his life.
Dick began to draw at the age of eight, making pencil sketches of things he observed. His parents bought him oil paints for Christmas, and family lore has it that he had completed his first oil painting by the time they arose. He enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, then at age 18 in the American Academy of Art. The next year he opened his first studio. He worked a number of years as a commercial artist, while doing oil paintings as a sideline.
But by the end of the fifties, photographs were rapidly replacing original art for advertising. This fact, coupled with his feeling that he could do oils as well as those he saw exhibited at Chicago's Art Institute, led him to foresake commercial art. He traveled the world with his photographer son Bruce, painting everything he saw. He went through many lean years, living on commissions and spending considerable time trying to persuade galleries to display his work.
In 1878, in conjunction with his son Richard Earl Jr., he opened his own gallery in San Francisco, to display his own paintings and those of other impressionist artists, and at last he began to get the recognition he deserved. He spent the prime years of his life doing what he loved most: fishing and travelling, observing nature and life, and painting all the way. At age 76, he was still going strong when beset by the cancer that ended his life.
Dick was the son of Abijah Snider Thompson and Vera Ruth Koster. He married Mary Munn Hayes June 25, 1938 at Maywood, Cook County, Illinois, and they raised three sons, two of whom are still living.
Dick began to draw at the age of eight, making pencil sketches of things he observed. His parents bought him oil paints for Christmas, and family lore has it that he had completed his first oil painting by the time they arose. He enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, then at age 18 in the American Academy of Art. The next year he opened his first studio. He worked a number of years as a commercial artist, while doing oil paintings as a sideline.
But by the end of the fifties, photographs were rapidly replacing original art for advertising. This fact, coupled with his feeling that he could do oils as well as those he saw exhibited at Chicago's Art Institute, led him to foresake commercial art. He traveled the world with his photographer son Bruce, painting everything he saw. He went through many lean years, living on commissions and spending considerable time trying to persuade galleries to display his work.
In 1878, in conjunction with his son Richard Earl Jr., he opened his own gallery in San Francisco, to display his own paintings and those of other impressionist artists, and at last he began to get the recognition he deserved. He spent the prime years of his life doing what he loved most: fishing and travelling, observing nature and life, and painting all the way. At age 76, he was still going strong when beset by the cancer that ended his life.
Dick began to draw at the age of eight, making pencil sketches of things he observed. His parents bought him oil paints for Christmas, and family lore has it that he had completed his first oil painting by the time they arose. He enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art, then at age 18 in the American Academy of Art. The next year he opened his first studio. He worked a number of years as a commercial artist, while doing oil paintings as a sideline.
But by the end of the fifties, photographs were rapidly replacing original art for advertising. This fact, coupled with his feeling that he could do oils as well as those he saw exhibited at Chicago's Art Institute, led him to foresake commercial art. He traveled the world with his photographer son Bruce, painting everything he saw. He went through many lean years, living on commissions and spending considerable time trying to persuade galleries to display his work.
In 1878, in conjunction with his son Richard Earl Jr., he opened his own gallery in San Francisco, to display his own paintings and those of other impressionist artists, and at last he began to get the recognition he deserved. He spent the prime years of his life doing what he loved most: fishing and travelling, observing nature and life, and painting all the way. At age 76, he was still going strong when beset by the cancer that ended his life.
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