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Thomas Corner, by Thomas Cromwell Corner, 1888. Oil on canvas. 14 3/4 x 11 49/64 in. (37.5 x 29.9 cm). Maryland Historical Society. Accession: 1982-4-2.
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Young Woman with a Book (Mrs. Anita White), by Thomas Cromwell Corner, 1924. Oil on canvas. 42 11/64 x 38 7/64 in. (107.1 x 96.8 cm.) Maryland Historical Society, Accession: 1969-30-1.
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Patapsco Valley at Orange Grove, by Thomas Cromwell Corner, 1884. Oil on canvas. 24 1/64 x 17 27/32 in. (61 x 45.3 cm.) Maryland Historical Society, Accession: 1950-26-1.
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Medium/Discipline: Painting
Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland
Maryland Affiliation: Born here
Prominent Theme: Portraits
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: A capable portrait painter, Corner adopted the seated profile portrait of sitters engaged in reading and reflecting, which was made popular among many late 19th Century artists by James McNeill Whistler in his Portrait of the Artist's Mother. The Baltimore Museum owns a Corner portrait of William Henly Corner, the artist's father, dating to 1893 that shows the subject reading. Thomas Cromwell Corner traveled to Europe where he achieved some renown: his self portrait, today owned by the Baltimore Museum of Art, was exhibited in the prestigious Paris Salon of 1891.
Prior to his Europe travels, he studied at the Art Students League in New York under J. Alden Weir (1852-1919) and Kenyon Cox (1856-1919). In 1891, he returned to Baltimore where he spent the remainder of his life excelling mainly as a painter of portraits of prominent contemporaries. He is also known to have produced a small number of genre and still life subjects. Of his profession, Corner once commented, "Portrait painting bears the same relation to ordinary painting as biography does to fiction. A biographer is obliged to stick laboriously to the facts. So is the portrait painter. A man must look like himself."
Thomas Cromwell Corner was a painter and contributor to the cultural institutions in Baltimore that supported the arts throughout his life. He was an active member of The Charcoal Club, an artists' association, and he served as trustee of The Baltimore Museum of Art from its founding in 1914 until his death in 1938.
Education/Training: City College, Baltimore; Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore; Art Students League, New York; Académie Julian, Paris
Taught By: George B. Way (son of still-life painter Andrew John Henry Way), in painting; J. Alden Weir (1852-1919) and Kenyon Cox (1856-1919)
Art-related Employment: painter
Selected References: Dean, Mary A. [et al.]. 350 Years of Art & Architecture in Maryland (College Park : Art Gallery, and Gallery of the School of Architecture, University of Maryland), 1984.
Pleasants, J. Hall. Two Hundred and Fifty Years of Painting in Maryland (Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art), 1945.
Other Publications: Thomas Cromwell Corner, An Appreciation, A Memoir, An Alphabetical and Chronological Index of the Portraits Painted and Forty-Nine Reproductions (Baltimore: privately printed), 1940.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: Baltimore Museum of Art (painting); Maryland Historical Society
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