Cephas Thompson (1775–1856)

• Was an American, self-taught, portrait painter.
• He was born, died, and lived most of his life in Middleborough, Massachusetts.
• Thompson married Olive Leonard on March 18, 1802.
• Their son, Cephas Giovanni Thompson, became a painter of portraits and landscape in his own right.
• Although Thompson lived most of his life in Middleborough, he produced portraits at several locations in southeastern New England.
• From 1800 to 1825 he made many seasonal trips to the south to paint in Baltimore, Alexandria, Norfolk, Charleston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Georgia.
• Between 1805 and 1821 Thompson also paid five extended visits to Bristol, Rhode Island, where he painted over 132 portraits of merchants, ship-owners, sea captains, and their wives and children.
• At about age 50, Thompson retired from itinerant painting to reside year-round on his Middleborough farm.
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