Margaret Thomas - Infinite Women

Born: 23 December 1842, United Kingdom
Died: 24 December 1929
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Margaret Cook

The following is excerpted from The Dictionary of Australian Biography by Percival Searle, published in 1949 by Angus and Robertson and republished by Project Gutenberg.

THOMAS, MARGARET (c. 184?-1929), artist and author, daughter of a shipowner, was born at Croydon, Surrey, England, probably between 1840 and 1845. She was brought to Australia by her parents in 1852 and later on studied sculpture under Charles Summers (q.v.) at Melbourne. She exhibited a medallion portrait at the first exhibition of the Victorian Society of Fine Arts held in 1857, and 10 years later went to Europe to continue her studies. She had a medallion shown at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1868; after studying for three years at Rome she obtained a studentship at the Royal Academy, London, and in 1872 won the silver medal for sculpture. Between 1873 and 1877 ten of her paintings, mostly portraits, were hung at exhibitions of the Royal Academy. In 1880 Miss Thomas wrote a memoir of Summers, her first master, A Hero of the Workshop, and in the same year completed a bust of him for the shire hall, Taunton. She afterwards did busts of Henry Fielding and other distinguished Somersetshire men for the same place. She began contributing verse to periodicals and in 1888 Douglas Sladen included seven of her poems in his Australian Poets. Miss Thomas subsequently wrote several books of which A Scamper through Spain and Tangier (1892), and Two Years in Palestine and Syria (1899), were illustrated by the author. In 1902 appeared an interesting little book, Denmark Past and Present, which was followed by How to Judge Pictures (1906), and a collection of her verse, A Painter’s Pastime (1908). In 1911 appeared what was possibly her most valuable piece of work, How to Understand Sculpture. Another volume of verse, Friendship, Poems in Memoriam, was published in 1927. She also did a large number of illustrations in colour for From Damascus to Palmyra, by John Kelman, published in 1908. She died on 24 December 1929 (Obituary Who’s Who 1931). Her portrait in oils of Charles Summers, and a medallion portrait of Sir Redmond Barry (q.v.), are in the historical collection at the public library, Melbourne.

This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Australasian Biography: Comprising notices of eminent colonists from the inauguration of responsible government down to the present time. [1855-1892] by Phillip Mennell, F.R.G.S., published by Hutchinson & Co., 25 Paternoster Square and 1892. The text was reproduced via Project Gutenberg.

Thomas, Margaret, an Australian sculptor and portrait painter, was born in Surrey, but taken to Victoria by her parents when quite a child. Miss Thomas received her first art education under the late Charles Summers, the sculptor, who had then a studio in Melbourne. She was one of the first three art students to apply for, and obtain permission, to draw from the casts and copy the pictures in the galleries of the Melbourne Public Library, and she exhibited both sculpture and paintings at the Victorian Society of Fine Arts Exhibition. Miss Thomas next proceeded to South Kensington, and from there to Rome, where she remained as a student over two years and a half. On returning to England, she was admitted a student of the Royal Academy, and won the silver medal for sculpture, this being the first occasion on which that distinction was bestowed on a lady student. After two years’ study, Miss Thomas set up a London studio, and was a frequent exhibitor at the Academy—in 1874 having no less than six portraits on the walls. On the death of Mr. Charles Summers in 1878, it was decided to erect a memorial bust of him in the Shire Hall, Taunton, and Miss Thomas, his old Melbourne pupil, was chosen to execute the work, which was unveiled by the High Sheriff of the County of Somerset on Nov. 26th, 1880. Miss Thomas subsequently executed busts of a number of other “Somersetshire worthies” for the Shire Hall, Taunton, including that of Henry Fielding, unveiled by James Russell Lowell, then American Minister; General Jacob, of the Scinde Horse, founder of Jacobabad; and Dr. Wilson Fox, the Queen’s physician. She recently finished (1891) a marble bust of the late Richard Jefferies, for Salisbury Cathedral. Miss Margaret Thomas is also an industrious littérateur, and has published a memoir of Charles Summers, entitled, “A Hero of the Workshop,” and a quantity of verse in various English, American and Australian periodicals, a selection from which will be found in Mr. Douglas Sladen’s “Anthology.”