{{Short description|British artist & sculptor (1901-1937)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Stephen Tomlin | image = File:Dora_Carrington_and_Stephen_Tomlin_in_the_1920s.jpg | caption = Tomlin poses with his lover Dora Carrington in the 1920s | birth_name = Stephen Tomlin | birth_date = {{birth date|1901|3|02|df=y}} | birth_place = London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1937|1|5|1901|3|2|df=y}} | death_place = Royal Victoria Hospital, Bournemouth, Hampshire | occupation = artist, sculptor | father = Thomas Tomlin | spouse = {{marriage|Julia Strachey|1927|1934|end=separated}} | alma_mater = New College, Oxford | module = {{infobox artist | embed = yes | notable_works = Bust of Virginia Woolf, bust of Lytton Strachey }} }}
'''Stephen Tomlin''' (2 March 1901 – 5 January 1937) was a British artist associated with the Bloomsbury Set. He was the youngest son of the judge and law lord Thomas, Lord Tomlin of Ash.
== Life == thumb|left|Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), vintage snapshot print/NPG Ax142600. Dora Carrington; Stephen Tomlin; Walter John Herbert ('Sebastian') Sprott; Lytton Strachey, June 1926
Tomlin studied classics at New College, Oxford from January 1919. However, he suffered a nervous breakdown following the death of a fellow student and left after two terms.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/ARTtomlinS.htm|title=Stephen Tomlin|last=Simkin|first=John|date=August 2014|website=Spartacus Educational|publisher=|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref> He then became a pupil of Frank Dobson and later established a career as a portrait sculptor.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1208786278|title=Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951|last=|first=|date=|website=sculpture.gla.ac.uk|publisher=University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref>
Tomlin's circle of friends, and sitters for portraits, included many members of the Bloomsbury Group, particularly second generation members like Francis Birrell and David Garnett.
Tomlin was bisexual and had affairs with a number of members of the Bloomsbury set including Henrietta Bingham<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/06/good-stories-of-bad-bloomsbury-behaviour/|title=Good Stories of Bad Bloomsbury Behaviour|last=Chisholm|first=Anne|date=27 June 2015|website=The Spectator|publisher=The Spectator|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref> and Dora Carrington. In 1927 he married Julia Strachey, niece of Lytton Strachey.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/ARTtomlinS.htm|title=Stephen Tomlin|last=Simkin|first=John|date=August 2014|website=Spartacus Educational|publisher=|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref> His relationships with men are less well attested, probably due to the necessity of concealing homosexual activity which was at that time illegal in the United Kingdom under the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
[[File:Virginia Woolf, Tavistock Square, London.JPG|thumb|left|Bust of Virginia Woolf in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, by Stephen Tomlin]] One of Tomlin's boyfriends, known as 'H', also had a relationship with the artist Duncan Grant. 'H' worked in the drapery department at the now defunct Jones Brothers’ department store on the Holloway Road. When he and Tomlin visited Lytton Strachey at Ham Spray in the 1930s, 'H' was obliged to sleep downstairs with the servants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.charleston.org.uk/duncan-grant-and-queer-bloomsbury/|title=Duncan Grant and Queer Bloomsbury|last=Watney|first=Simon|date=January 13, 2011|website=Charleston.org.uk|publisher=|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref>
Tomlin co-founded The Cranium dining club with David Garnett, another member of the Bloomsbury Group; the club met every month to exchange ideas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1208786278|title=The Honourable Stephen Tomlin, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951|last=|first=|date=|website=sculpture.gla.ac.uk|publisher=|access-date=22 May 2016}}</ref>
Tomlin died in 1937 at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Boscombe, Hampshire.
== Collections == Correspondence between Tomlin and his wife Julia Strachey is held as part of the Strachey Papers at University College London.<ref>{{Cite web |last=UCL Special Collections |title=Strachey Papers |url=https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=STRACHEY |access-date=2025-07-15 |website=UCL Archives Catalogue}}</ref>
==Further reading== * Michael Bloch, Susan Fox: ''Bloomsbury stud : the life of Stephen "Tommy" Tomlin'', London: M.A.B, 2020, {{ISBN|978-1-9163254-0-1}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
== External links ==
* [https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=STRACHEY Strachey Papers] at University College London {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomlin, Stephen}} Category:1901 births Category:1937 deaths Category:Artists from London Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:English LGBTQ sculptors Category:Sons of life peers Category:20th-century British LGBTQ people