Mary Thomas (American, 1905-1959), Turkey Composition

Gouache and mixed media on paper, signed at lower right, retaining gallery label, matted and framed below Plexiglass.

Sight size 17 1/4 x 27 1/4 in.; Frame dimensions 29 x 35 in.

Lee Hansley Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina

Mary Alice Leath Thomas was born in Hazelhurst, Georgia. In the early 1930s, she had graduated from Georgia State College for Women and was working towards her master's degree at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She was appointed assistant professor of art at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and also served as president of the North Carolina Art Teacher’s Association.

In 1940, Thomas enrolled in summer classes at the University of Chicago. Here she met Howard Thomas, who would become her second husband. The new couple moved to Athens, Georgia, where Howard Thomas was appointed professor of art at the University of Georgia. Mary Leath also taught at the university, and served as consultant for the Atlanta school system and the South Carolina Department of Education.

Mary Leath Thomas's early works were lyrical and atmospheric depictions of the southern landscape. In 1941, after viewing a retrospective of Paul Klee's work at the Museum of Modern Art, she began working in a more modern style. Her work was well received and has been exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, High Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Slight instability to mixed media particles.