John Thompson was a British painter best known for his expressive and subtle depictions of nudes, groups of working men, and the landscapes and streetscapes around Manchester. Thompson’s linework and unique color combinations give a vitality to his paintings similar to that of the artists L.S. Lowry and Pierre Bonnard. This is exemplified in the work What Next (2010), where Thompson overlays a gradient of blues and muted greens over a wiry illustration of cloth-capped men.

Born in 1924 in Oldham, United Kingdom to a working class family. Due to his socioeconomic standing, the artist was largely self-taught and trained himself by making copies of postcards and ocean liner advertisements. He began receiving critical acclaim for his wo...