Stephen Seymour Thomas was born in San Augustine, Texas on August 20, 1868 to James Edwards Thomas and Mary Landon Thomas. His parents built the first two-story house in the state of Texas and were among the first settlers of San Augustine.

Stephen Thomas was a portrait painter and became a 'known' artist in Texas at a very early age. A successful exhibition in New York City at age sixteen facilitated his entry to the Art Students League in New York from 1885 to 1888, where he studied under the aegis of William Merritt Chase and James Carroll Beckwith. At age 20, Thomas studied under Jules Lefebvre and Benjamin Constant in Paris at the Academie Julian, and continued to live in Paris for twenty-five years. He took private classes with...