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 of colour, distinction of style, and a certain grandeur of impression and design. For its time it has also freshness and originality of observation. Many of his pictures, owing to his habit of painting upon an insufficiently hardened ground of flour boiled with vinegar, which he described as ‘parritch,’ and a reckless use of asphaltum and megilp, are now in a very bad state of preservation. His slighter and more directly painted pictures are, however, in a much sounder state, and some of them betray a sensitiveness and charm of handling which one would hardly expect from his more elaborate work.

His pictures are to be found principally in the mansions of the Lothians and neighbouring counties and in Edinburgh. He is well represented in the National Gallery of Scotland by a series of works which shows the range of his art; there are two small examples in Glasgow, and a watercolour is in the historical collection at South Kensington. Of recent years his work has attracted considerable attention, and in 1895 twenty-four of his pictures were shown at the Grafton Gallery exhibition of Scottish old masters.

In the Scottish National Gallery there are two portraits of Thomson—one by Scott Lauder, and one by William Wallace; a second by Wallace is at present in the Scottish Portrait Gallery, and a head and shoulders by Raeburn belongs to Mr. Stirling of Keir. The last has been engraved in mezzotint by Alexander Hay.



THOMSON, JOHN (1805–1841), musical writer, eldest son of [q. v.], successively minister of Sprouston, Perthshire, and St. George's, Edinburgh, by his wife, Jane Carmichael (d. 1840), was born at Sprouston on 28 Oct. 1805. He made the acquaintance of Mendelssohn on the composer's visit to Edinburgh in 1829, and renewed his acquaintance at Leipzig, where he also met Schumann and Moscheles, and studied under Schnyder von Wartensee. He returned to Edinburgh, and in 1839 he was elected first Reid professor of the theory of music in the university there. He gave the first Reid concert on 12 Feb. 1841, and the book of words contains a critical analysis by Thomson of the pieces produced—probably the first instance of analytical programmes.

Thomson died at Edinburgh on 6 May 1841, having occupied the chair for only eighteen months. Six months before his death he married a daughter of (1779–1859) [q. v.], principal of Edinburgh University.

He was the composer of three operas: He also published ‘The Vocal Melodies of Scotland, with Symphonies and Accompaniments by John Thomson and Finlay Dunn,’ Edinburgh, n.d. 4to; new edit. 1880. He wrote many compositions for the piano and violin, and among a large number of songs the best known are ‘The Arab to his Steed,’ ‘Harold Harfäger,’ and ‘The Pirate's Serenade.’
 * 1) ‘Hermann, or the Broken Spear,’ 1834;
 * 2) ‘The House of Aspen;’ and
 * 3) ‘The Shadow on the Wall;’ the two latter, produced at the Royal English Opera (Lyceum) on 27 Oct. 1834 and 21 April 1835 respectively, each enjoying a long run.



THOMSON, JOHN (1765–1846), physician and surgeon, born at Paisley on 15 March 1765, the son of Joseph Thomson, a silk-weaver, by his wife, Mary Millar. John was engaged in trade under different masters for about three years, until at the age of eleven he was bound apprentice to his father for seven years. At the end of his term of service his father destined him for the ministry of the anti-burgher seceders. John, however, desiring to study medicine, persuaded his father to apprentice him in 1785 to Dr. White of Paisley, with whom he remained for three years. He entered the university of Glasgow in the winter session of 1788–9, and in the following year migrated to Edinburgh. He was appointed assistant apothecary at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, in September 1790, and in the following September he became house-surgeon to the institution under the designation of surgeon's clerk, having already from the previous June filled the office of an assistant physician's clerk. He became a member of the Medical Society at the beginning of the winter session in 1790–1, and in the following year he was elected one of its presidents. On 31 July 1792 Thomson resigned his appointment at the infirmary on account of ill-health, and proceeded to