William Thon
Birth Date: August 8, 1906
Death Date: December 6, 2000
Artist Gallery
A pharmacist’s son, William Thon, was born in 1906. He is a native New Yorker, born on West 34th Street. His grandfather came here from Germany at the time of the American Civil War. His grandmother was Alsatian, his mother English and Irish. Thon’s father used to take his family to Ocean Breeze on Staten Island, every summer, where they lived in a tent. At the age of six, he began drawing the sea and boats. The first canvas he ever painted on was from the un-sized cloth of a tent. He left school at the end of the eight grade. Except for one month’s instruction at the Art Students League, he is entirely self-taught. All his life, he loved the sea – swimming, sailing and other water sports. Before Thon was able to earn a living as an artist, he was obliged to take on many jobs. He was, in turn, a commercial artist, a bricklayer’s assistant, a sign painter and a floor sweeper. He kept himself going during the depression years as a partner in a window-display company. In 1932, Thon embarked on a romantic voyage to the Cocos Island, searching for buried treasure (without the permission of the sovereign Costa Rica government). Thon confides that his part had no real clue as to the location of the treasure. They simply went around the island, digging holes here and there. The food soon gave out, but the party subsisted on fish. Thon was inspired by the natural wonders of the island, but otherwise the expedition was a failure. But through all of this, he had time to paint and had his first one-man show. Success came very slowly, and Thon’s star did not really rise until after his World War II stint on a sub chaser and his sojourn in Italy. In 1946 he was released from the Navy and in April of that year, he had his second one-man exhibition and began his artistic career. However, he always knew that he could support himself by carpentry if his first love ever failed him. Thon is one of the most widely admired painters in American today.