Steffen Thomas

Georgia Masterpieces: Selected Works from Georgia's Museums. Atlanta: Georgia Council for the Arts, 2009.

Steffen Thomas: Georgia's German Expressionist. Macon: The Museum of Arts and Sciences, 2000.

Thomas’s wife and lifelong muse, Sara, conceived the idea to create a museum dedicated to the memory of her husband and his art. She founded the Steffen Thomas Museum and Archives (Steffen Thomas Museum of Art) in Buckhead in 1997. The museum houses an extensive collection of Thomas’s art and is dedicated to the research and documentation of his life’s work. The Steffen Thomas Museum of Art is one of the few organizations in the country dedicated to one artist.

Aiches, Alan Z., and Anthony F. Janson (1997). The Art of Steffen Thomas. Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia: The Steffen Thomas Museum and Archives, S.T.A.R. of GA, L.P.

In 1970, Thomas returned to a midtown Atlanta studio, selling his Stone Mountain estate. He continued his work until his death with the same passion and intensity from his student days.

Thomas supported his family through public commissions and portraiture. Among the most notable monuments are the Alabama Memorial (1951) installed at the Vicksburg National Military Park, the statue of Eugene Talmadge, Georgia State Capitol Collection, and the Trilon (c.1950) located on the corner of Peachtree and 15th Street in Atlanta. Thomas also created numerous busts commemorating prominent Georgians: Chief Justice Richard Russell Jr., Georgia State College for Women (currently Georgia College and State University), Milledgeville, GA; Martha Berry, Berry Schools (currently Berry College), Berry, GA; Joel Chandler Harris, Atlanta Public Schools; Moina Michael, “The Poppy Lady”, Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta, GA; portrait head of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Little White House, Warm Springs, GA; and George Washington Carver, Tuskegee Institute (currently Tuskegee University), Tuskegee, AL.

In 1941, Sara and Steffen purchased fifty acres near Stone Mountain, Georgia, and subsequently built a home and artist studio. The couple raised four children, Steffen, Robin, Douglass, and Lisa. Thomas continually worked on the complex by hand, and it became a popular destination, visited by friends, family, and tourists.

Thomas came to the United States in search of the Romantic ideal of prosperity and freedom. Once he arrived, he took advantage of every opportunity available. He served as Arts Supervisor for the National Youth Administration (WPA program), from 1939–1941, served as a representative of the Georgia Artists Association with the Georgia Art Commission, and on the Advisory Board of UNICEF.

A few houses down from Thomas lived a school teacher named Sara Douglass. Thomas was introduced to Douglass through her mother over a conversation about gardening, and after a two-month courtship they were married (1933) at Fulton County Courthouse. Thomas briefly returned to Germany after his move to America, but did not visit again until 1972. While his family remained in Germany, Thomas found his artistic life belonged in his adoptive country and he became an American citizen in 1935.

Thomas quickly tired of his artistic life in Germany and longed for greater endeavors. In 1928, Thomas realized his dream of moving to America. He spent brief periods in Florida, Illinois, and Alabama, but eventually settled in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1930. In 1931 Thomas created a bust of journalist Henry W. Grady which became the central display of the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame.

Thomas was enraptured by the feminine form from his earliest artistic period. As a student, Thomas was asked to create the highest form of labor, in which he responded by creating a mother and child figure, calling it Laboré (1927–28). Laboré represents Thomas’s respect and admiration for motherhood and the relationship between a mother and child. This theme reoccurs throughout Thomas’s artistic career. Art historian Anthony Janson terms the women figures in Thomas’s oeuvre as muses. They tend to resemble his wife, Sara, although the muses appear in works prior to their introduction. The feminine figures are likened to the classical tradition but are not specifically based on classical notions. They are classically inspired, but stylistically modern. For Thomas, the muses represent femininity, but also humanity.

Steffen Wolfgang George Thomas (January 7, 1906 – January 27, 1990) was an artist and poet. He was born in Fürth, Germany, but lived most of his adult life in Atlanta, Georgia. His most notable pieces are public monuments; however, he also worked in other media (including, but not limited to painting, sculpture, mosaic, printmaking, encaustic, and watercolor). His art is greatly influenced by Expressionism.

Thomas was born in 1906 in Fürth, Germany. He expressed a strong passion for art from an early age. After Thomas’s father witnessed his son carving angel faces in the marble foundation of their home, he later apprenticed Thomas to a stone carver, providing Thomas a useful skill, but also a creative outlet to cultivate his artistic talents.