Verner Thomé (1878-1953) was a post-impressionist graphic artist from Finland. He was influenced by Vitalism a German-Scandanavian movement that incorporated Nietzsche's philosophy.[1]
Contents |
Verner Thomé was born in Alajärvi. His first job was at the Tilgmans Lithographical Company which commissioned posters from Finnish artists. At the same time he attended the Helsinki University Art School. In 1898-9 he attended the drawing school at the Finnish League of Artists. He spent 1901 and 1902 in Munich at the Bavarian Royal Academy of Art. Between 1903 and 1910 he spent his summers with Magnus Enckell at Hogland on the Baltic Coast.[1]
He first came to prominence in 1903 when he exhibited in Helsinki at the Exhibition of Finnish Artists, and then in 1904 visited Paris, Spain and Morocco. In 1906 he spent time in Italy and Southern France. The Septem Group was founded in 1909- by Alfred William Finch, Knut Magnus Enckell, Yrjö Ollila (1887-1932, Mikko Oinonen (1883-1956) Juho Rissanen, Ellen Thesleff and Verner Thomé. Their inspiration came from the Helsinki, 1904 Impressionist and Neo-impressionist Franco-Belgian Exhibition that included Paul Signac and Henri Edmond Cross. Verner Thomé.
Verner Thomé exhibited at all Septem Group exhibitions, and the Exhibition of Finnish Art in Stockholm (1916). St Petersburg (1917) and Gothenburg (1923).[1]
He died in Helsinki in 1953.
Vitalism had a light palette that replaced the dowdy palette of National Romanticism in the early years of the 20th century. It adopted a positivist view of life, being a development of the tradition of figure painting where the male nude is a symbol of power shown against the sea, the sun and forces of nature.[1]
