Galerie Molinas

Ernest Thorne Thompson, son of Ernest Hyacinth and Annie Louise (Thorne) Thompson was born at Saint John, New Brunswick November 8,1897 and died at Damariscotta, Maine June 8, 1992. He married Florence Marie Paulsen, daughter of Iver and Edla Jeannette (Hallin) Paulsen, born at Woburn, Massachusetts June 13, 1898 (Mass. VRs) and died at Muscongus Point, Bristol, Maine, August 3, 1990. They married at Woburn, Massachusetts December 30, 1922 (Mass. VRs)

Florence was born with the surname Paulson according to Massachusetts Vital Records.

Ernest was an ensign in the United States Navy during the First World War.

Florence and Ernest both attended the Massachusetts School of Art (now Massachusetts College of Art) from which they both received diplomas in 1920 (as the school was not yet a degree awarding institution). Florence taught school at Newport, New Hampshire from 1920-22. Ernest did some graduate work in 1920-21 at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston, Mass. (which was not a degree granting programme at that time).

In 1922 Florence and Ernest removed to South Bend, Indiana when he accepted a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame. He was a professor of art and Director of the School of Fine Arts at the University. He taught there from 1922 to 1929. While at Notre Dame, he sculpted the statue of the ‘Flying Horsemen’ and the Stations of the Cross.

Florence also taught at Notre Dame. She was the first female faculty member at the University. She taught art from 1926 to 1929. Together they organized the art department at Notre Dame. The art department of which no longer exists.

The Thompsons left Notre Dame in 1929 and removed to New Rochelle, N.Y. At New Rochelle they founded and organized the art department at the College of New Rochelle, which is an Ursuline Roman Catholic college. Ernest started teaching at New Rochelle in 1929 and Florence in 1932. They remained at the College until retirement in 1968. While at the College of New Rochelle, Ernest was chairperson of the Department of Fine Arts and Director of the Huguenot School of Art [also located at New Rochelle, N.Y.] from 1947 to 1951. In 1980 they both received honourary degrees of Doctor of Fine Arts from the College of New Rochelle.

Florence’s interest in art was primarily enamel work on metal and ceramics. She also worked with stencilling. She made her own stencils. Ernest was primarily a painter in the medium of watercolours. He also sculpted. He was an amateur astronomer and had been working on grinding a lense for a telescope.

Ernest held memberships in the American Watercolor Society, of which he was a past director; the Allied Artists of America, of which he was president (1965-67) and an honourary life member; the Chicago Society of Etchers; the Hudson Valley Art Association; the New Rochelle Art Association; the Grand Central Art Galleries, of New York City; the Pemaquid Group of Artists at Bristol, Me.; and the Salmagundi Club, of New York City. He has exhibited individually at the Farnsworth Museum at Rockland, Me (1955) and the College of New Rochelle (1955). He has participated in group exhibitions at the New Rochelle [N.Y.] Library (1942, 1950) and the Society of Illustrators at New York City (1945). His work is represented in the permanent collections of the University of Notre Dame, the National Museum at Washington, D.C. and the Bibliotheque nationale at Paris, France. He was on the board of Directors of of the Maine Gallery at Wiscasset, Me. and has received awards for his art: the Rudolf Lesch Award and Medal from the American Watercolor Society (1955); the Saportas Award (1964); and the Charles L. Fox Award from the Farnsworth Museum (1974).

Upon retiring they removed Bristol, Maine where they maintained a summer home. Later they moved to Muscongus Point, Bristol, Maine.