Thomas Bridgford

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File:Thomas Bridgford C. 1875 (1812-1878).jpg

Thomas Bridgford RHA, Royal Hibernian Academician, was a British artist, in London and Manchester, England. Bridgford was born on 6 April 1812.{{cite web|url=http://www.printsandprintmaking.gov.au/catalogues/artist/171697/thomas-bridgford.aspx|title=BRIDGFORD, Thomas|work=Prints and Printmaking|publisher=The National Gallery of Australia|accessdate=6 October 2010}} He moved with his family to Ireland, in 1817. In the same year, 1827, he first exhibited work at the Royal Hibernian Academy at the age of fifteen. He went to London in 1834, to work as a portrait painter and returned to Dublin in 1844.{{cite book |author=H. L. Mallalieu |title=The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920|year=1986|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|isbn=1-85149-025-6|page=51}} Whilst in London he regularly exhibited at The Royal Academy between 1834 and 1844.The Royal Academy of Arts dictionary of Exhibitors, A Graves, 1905 Vol 1 p 279, accessed 9 May 2021.

He produced portraits, paintings, and lithographs, in England and Ireland. Many of his pencil portraits are of scientific members of the University College of London, an example shown on the original lithograph of Anthony Todd Thomson. He became an Associate of The Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin 24th Oct 1832, and became a member after his return from London 23 August 1851. In the year 1833, he married Mary Jane Sawyer, the sister of the surgeon James Sawyer of Dublin. He had five sons and 4 daughters.Strickland Walter G, Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913 Vol 1 accessed 9 May 2021

Bridgford died on 21 November 1878 in Dublin, Ireland.