Biography

Thomas Holborn Donnelly was born and raised in Washington, DC. He studied art first at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington and then at the Art Students League in New York. There he worked with John Sloan and Boardman Robinson. Donnelly served in the U.S. Army from 1917-1919. In 1922 he made a tour of Europe, travelling to England, France, Switzerland and Italy. He married Eva Kotten in 1927 and settled in Valhalla, New York, where he developed a reputation for his landscapes and winter scenes. Donnelly's watercolors were included in the Whitney Biennial in 1933. And critics praised his landscapes in a one-man show in New York in 1938. There followed a number of mural commissions. In addition to his murals, works of Donnelly's can be found in the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum.

Critical Analysis

Donnelly's work clearly shows the influence of his mentors John Sloan and Boardman Robinson at the Art Students League. But Donnelly's painting have a clarity of expression that is unique to him. A contemporary critic described the landscape in Donnelly's 1938 as "straightforward, honest and sincere".

Murals

• Hanover, New Hampshire - Dartmouth Library: Winter Landscape
• Ridgefield Park, New Jersey - Post Office: Washington Bridge
• Attica, New York - Post Office: Fall in the Genesee Country
• Clyde, New York - Post Office: Apple Pickers
• Larchmont, New York - Public Library: Larchmont Yacht Club
• Larchmont, New York - Public Library: The Manor House
• Mount Kisco, New York - Former Post Office: Indian Corn Field
• Mount Kisco, New York - Former Post Office: Mount Kisco in 1850

References

1. The Larchmont Public Library WPA Murals: History and Restoration (by Jill Sarkozi) (Larchmont Public Library).
2. Passport Application, 1922 (travel to France, England, Italy, Switzerland) (ancestry).
3. River Front -- Port Chester (Smithsonian American Art Museum).
4. Thomas Donnelly (Smithsonian American Art Museum).
5. Thomas H. Donnelly, American, 1893-1971, Factory Landscape, 1938 (iGavel Auctions).