painters, exhibited at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts in 1857. Mrs Thornton showed five of her own works and Home Scene and Broughly Castle, listed as having been painted by Mr Thornton. Two of her paintings were miniatures on ivory (Van Dyck and Tambourine Girl); Child’s Head, Study of Head and Lame Leading the Blind were 'crayons’ (pastels). At the same time Mr Thornton exhibited his wife’s watercolours of Loch Maree and Loch Lomond and her miniatures on ivory of St Peter’s (Rome) and Van Dyck’s wife. (He also showed a watercolour of Inverary painted by 'Williams’.) The subject-matter suggests that the couple had come from Scotland, possibly quite recently.

In 1869 C. Thornton signed and dated a well-executed watercolour, North Shore from Mosman (SU, Schofield Bequest) and in May 1954 James R. Lawson auctioned a landscape painting of Geneva, Switzerland, by W. Thornton, from the estate of Mrs J.A. Schofield. Perhaps these are the couple’s initials.

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Writers:
Staff Writer
Date written:
1992
Last updated:
2011