René Thomsen was a French painter of the School of Paris, born in Paris on July 21, 1897, and died in Versailles on July 28, 1976.
René Thomsen was the son of a sculptor friend of Doctor Paul Gachet, Vincent van Gogh's protector. His mother, who, after divorcing, became Henri Barbusse's secretary, and later Cécile Sorel's, introduced him to Théophile Steinlen. He was a student of Louis Anquetin, and a biographical note published in 1932 during an exhibition of the School of Paris in Dallas (Texas) also mentions him as a student of Fernand Cormon at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

René Thomsen, mobilized during the First World War in 1917, continued to draw and paint "Soldier Scenes." A collection of these drawings was for a long time part of the collection of the painter and sculptor Fernand Belmonte, who donated them to the town hall of Méry-sur-Marne, where they are kept today. Another theme Thomsen tackled at the same time was that of "Girls of Joy." In 1919, a period of great material precarity when he knew Maurice Loutreuil, Manuel Ortiz de Zarate, Jules Pascin, and Amedeo Modigliani, he discovered the Académie Colarossi with Chaïm Soutine and Isaac Dobrinsky.

A member of the Salon d'Automne in 1921, he received encouragement from Louis Vauxcelles, Élie Faure, and Joachim Gasquet. In 1931-1932, René Thomsen stayed at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid as a laureate of the Velasquez prize and a scholarship holder from the city of Paris.

His landscapes indicate that he traveled throughout France from Cayeux-sur-Mer to Avignon, and that he visited Spain and Morocco (the city of Fez in particular). René Thomsen also wrote: in 1968, he published a study on Édouard Manet.
René Thomsen died on July 28, 1976, a few days after the Versailles town hall honored him with the city's painting medal on the occasion of his seventy-ninth birthday.

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EXHIBITIONS

Solo:

Hôtel de Crillon, Paris, April 1922.
Galerie Marcel Bernheim, Paris, 1929.
Undated exhibitions, 1930s: Galerie Dru from March 2 to 12, 1931, Galerie Barbazance, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Besançon.
Guy Loudmer and Hervé Poulain, auctioneers in Paris, sale of René Thomsen's studio, Drouot Rive Gauche, Paris, March 3, 1976.
René Thomsen retrospective, Galerie 6, Dijon, 1988.
Paris-Centre (Bondu, Grandin, Mercier, auctioneers), sale of René Thomsen's studio, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 9, 1989.
René Thomsen - Drawings of First World War battlefields, from the collection of painter and sculptor Fernand Belmonte, Méry-sur-Marne town hall, November 2014.


Group:

Salon d'Automne, Paris, 1922.
Salon des Indépendants, 1923.
Exhibition "Petites Tuileries" - forty paintings of the School of Paris: Maurice Asselin, André Bauchant, Charles Kvapil, Henri Lebasque, Mela Muter, Anders Osterlind, Valentine Prax, Jean Puy, Jean Souverbie, Pierre Tal-Coat, René Thomsen, Dallas Public Art Gallery (College Art Association competition), Dallas (Texas), March-April 1932.
Homage to Jean Commère, René Thomsen, Franck Innocent and Marthe Orant, Centre Paul-Gauguin, Pont-Aven, 1989.


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AWARDS:
Velasquez Prize, 1930 or 1931.
Painting Medal of the City of Versailles, 1976.

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WORKS IN PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec,
Argenton-sur-Creuse, Town Hall: Les Champs à Auvers-sur-Oise, 1947, oil on canvas.
Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Musée Albert-André: Rue à L'Isle-Adam, oil on canvas.
Le Havre, Musée d'Art Moderne André-Malraux.
Méry-sur-Marne, Town Hall: collection of René Thomsen's drawings of First World War battlefields, donated to the city by painter and sculptor Fernand Belmonte (1897-1981).
Paris:
Collège Mozart, Rue Jomard: fresco.
Musée du Louvre: Vue de la salle Michel-Ange au Louvre lors de l'inauguration des nouvelles salles de sculptures par le Président Albert Lebrun en 1933, oil on canvas.
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris: Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, oil on canvas.
Musée National d'Art Moderne:
La Cathédrale de Salamanque, oil on canvas;
Voulx à travers les pommiers, 1928, oil on canvas.
Petit Palais: sketch for the fresco of the school on Rue Jomard.
Rouen, Municipal Library: La Maison de Gustave Flaubert à Croisset, oil on canvas.
Toulon, Maritime Prefecture: Portrait du duc de Vivonne.
Versailles, Château de Versailles: Les Funérailles du Président Painlevé