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Key figures

Origin and history

The Espace William Thornley is located in Grouchy Castle in Osny, Ile-de-France. This place preserves part of the works of Georges William Thornley (1857–1935), French post-impressionist painter and lithograph. Thornley, a pupil of Puvis de Chavannes and collaborator of Degas or Monet, moved to Osny in 1892, where he produced numerous paintings and lithographs.

Thornley exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1878, obtaining an honour in 1881 and a medal in 1888. He collaborated with major artists such as Pissarro and Monet, printing lithographs of their works, including La Femme à l'ombelle (after Monet). His paintings were acquired by the French state, the king of Italy Victor Emmanuel III and President Armand Fallières.

In 1900 Thornley produced 108 copies of 25 lithographs, while exhibiting at the Georges Petit gallery in Paris. After traveling to Normandy, Brittany and Provence, he died in 1935 in Pontoise. Osny pays tribute to him in this permanent space at Grouchy Castle, while other museums (Pontoise, Rennes, Strasbourg) also retain his works.

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