Thomas Wolfe

For some time Thomason hoped to paint a likeness of fellow North Carolinian and famous author Thomas Wolfe. He finally accomplished it in 1965, almost thirty years after the novelist’s death.

Both the writer and the artist lived in Greenwich Village during the 1920s, and they could have met there. In his autobiographical novel Look Homeward, Angel Wolfe had immortalized Asheville—a destination Thomason frequented either to exhibit his work in small shows or to buy shoes for his daughters. Appropriately, Thomason portrays Wolfe surrounded by books and with hat in hand, a reference perhaps to author’s restless lifestyle.