William Cave Thomas

William Cave Thomas (8 May 1820 – 1906), generally referred to as Cave Thomas was an English Victorian painter of historical, religious and literary subjects, also known as a sculptor and author.

History Thomas was born in London, a son of a picture-frame maker and gilder. He studied at the Royal Academy in the 1830s and in 1840 travelled to Munich, where for several years he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, learning the techniques of fresco painting, working at the basilica of St. Boniface's Abbey and elsewhere under Heinrich Maria von Hess, ) held at Westminster Hall. From these, six artists were selected:— Charles West Cope, William Dyce, John Callcott Horsley, Daniel Maclise, Richard Redgrave and William Cave Thomas. The subjects Thomas chose for his entries were "St Augustine Preaching to the Britons", "The Bark of the Prosperous", "Justice", and "Philosophy". These last two, for which Thomas was awarded two acquisition prizes totalling £400, were shown at, respectively, Hampton Court Palace and University College, London.

Selected works Rivalry (from the Illustrated Times)Rivalry was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855 and the Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester 1857. It found its way to Australia in 1861, where it was later advertised as ". . . without doubt, the finest work of art in the colony". Thomas had a brother, James Henry Thomas, an art patron in Sydney. Albrecht Dürer is a large oil on canvas full-length portrait commissioned in 1863 by the builder of the Victoria and Albert Museum for its "Kensington Valhalla" court at South Kensington. Various artists were so commissioned, to be copied as mosaics representing great artists, and in the end Thomas's was not used.