Thorsen - Lars

Thorsen, Lars (1876-1952)

Lars Thorsen was born in Norway on November 20, 1876. He worked various maritime jobs throughout his life including mess-boy, sail-maker, rigger, and Grand Banks fisherman. He had no formal art training but taught himself to paint while at sea. He became famous for his marine paintings and won the Bunce Prize from the Connecticut of Academy of Fine Arts in 1937. Thorsen was a member of the Mystic Art Colony and lived in Noank, Connecticut. He began work for the WPA Federal Arts Project in 1939, completing 81 works many of which were allocated to the Rocky Hill Soldiers’ Home, Undercliff Sanatorium, Fairfield State Hospital, Mystic Oral School, Washington School, Connecticut State Farm for Women, Borough School, Connecticut National Guard Aviation Hangar, and Fort Wright on Fisher’s Island, New York. Thorsen died in New London, Connecticut in 1952.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; AskART; Who Was Who In American Art (1985), p. 623; Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters (1986), 937; East Side Area Antiques, Lars Thorsen, pp. 9-10 of 12; Photo Standalone 25, Hartford Courant, June 6, 1926; “Sea’s Spirit Is Captured By Thorsen,” Hartford Courant, March 17, 1927; “Mystic Museum to Show Work of Lars Thorsen,” Hartford Courant, April 17, 1945; Donald Smith, “New Mecca for Connecticut’s Artists [Noank],” Hartford Courant, August 3, 1947.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Lars Thorsen:

Thorsen, Lars