Original Tom Thomson Discovered in Ottawa Home

A painting that hung over an air vent and next to a fireplace and a window in an Ottawa home for decades turned out to be an original work by Tom Thomson.

Kaileigh Richter inherited the painting in 1983 from her grandmother’s estate in Lakefield, Ontario.  Richter’s great-grandfather, Albert H. Robson, had written on the back of the painting “This sketch was made by Tom Thomson in 1915.”  No one in the family thought the painting was authentic until an appraiser came in to inspect china in the estate and the painting caught his eye.  He took it to Canadian curator Joan Murray, an expert on Thomson, who deemed the painting authentic.

Robson likely received the painting when he was Thomson’s boss at the advertising firm Grip Ltd. in the early 1900s. 

Source:  CBC News