Portrait of Thomas Wilkinson by Eleanor Gribble.
Thomas William Wilkinson (1875-1950), sculptor, was born at Kingswood Street, Great Horton, Bradford. His parents were father, Eli, a Bradford Police Constable, and mother Mary. Thomas was one of three children and studied art initially at Bradford Art School.
He married Annie Sharp at Bradford in 1900 and by 1904 they had had two children, Sidney and Harry, and the family had moved to Ipswich, Suffolk. In Suffolk he studied at the Ipswich School of Art under the tutelage of George Rushton and passed examinations in ornamental painting in 1909.
However, by this time he was also producing sculptural works – see example below, dated 1908. And although he contributed illustrations to magazines, he is remembered primarily for his sculptures, mainly of head studies of his subjects.
Boy’s Head (1908). Image: Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service
To supplement his income Wilkinson also worked as an accountant to the Ipswich Corporation Electricity and Transport Departments,
He exhibited sculptural works at the Royal Academy and Paris Salon and was elected as an Associate member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He gained a prize in the 1948 Olympics for his design for plaque for a sports festival and his sculptural work was featured at centenary exhibition of the Ipswich Art Club in 1974. His work was also exhibited in Suffolk at the Tibbenhams Art Gallery, Ipswich,
Portrait of an Old Lady. Image: Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service.
His work can be found in the collection at the Colchester & Ipswich Museum (see above images). He died in Ipswich, aged 75.
(With thanks to the Suffolk Artists website (suffolkartists.co.uk) for their previous valuable research on the life and work of this artist.)