Thomas W. Wood

Thomas Waterman Wood’s figure, so familiar in our meetings, gave little sign of his four-score years, and to the very last he was among the most active members of the artist’s profession, not only in its practice, but in many organizations devoted to professional interests. It is but four years since he ceased to be the President of the Academy of Design, with which he had been connected for thirty years. He was for nine years President of the American Water Color Society—from 1878 to 1887; was for thirteen years President of the Artists’ Aid Society, and was one of the founders of the New York Etching Club, and a Governor of the National Arts Club[.] As an artist he received his early training and his strongest impulse at Düsseldorf, where he studied under Hans Gude; later he studied in Vienna, Rome, and Paris. In his prime both his genre pictures and his portraits were very popular throughout New York and New England, where the former were accepted as spirited illustrations of national characteristics of the time, and the latter were valued for fidelity in likeness and solidity of workmanship. The later years of his life were devoted to the production of careful copies of the old masters, with which he formed an extensive gallery in his native town of Montpelier, Vermont. All of his estate, with the exception of a few personal bequests, was left for the support of this museum.

Edward Cary
1904 Century Association Yearbook