Launt Thompson (February 8, 1833 – September 26, 1894) was an American sculptor.

Launt Thompson
Born(1833-02-08)February 8, 1833
Abbeyleix, Ireland
DiedSeptember 26, 1894(1894-09-26) (aged 61)
NationalityAmerican
Known forsculpture

Biography

edit

He was born in Abbeyleix, Ireland. Due to the Great Famine occurring in Ireland at the time, he emigrated to the United States in 1847 with his widowed mother, and they settled in Albany, New York. There, he found work as a handyman.[1]

After studying anatomy in the office of a physician, Dr. James H. Armsby, he spent nine years as the studio boy of the sculptor, E. D. Palmer. In 1858 he moved to New York City where he opened a studio. There he shared an apartment with James Pinchot. In 1862 he was elected academician at the National Academy due to his work Rocky Mountain Trapper, a marble portrait of James "Grizzly" Adams. He visited Rome in 1868–1869, and married Maria Louisa Potter (1839–1916), daughter of Alonzo Potter, Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania. From 1875 to 1887 he was again in Italy, living for most of the time at Florence. He died at the State Mental Asylum at Middletown, New York.[1]

Selected works

edit

References

edit
Attribution
  •   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thompson, Launt". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

edit
  • David Bernard Dearinger, ed. (2004) Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design: 1826-1925 (Volume 1), pp. 534, New York, NY: Hudson Hills, ISBN 1555950299, see [1] and [2], accessed 12 September 2015.