HARRISON, THOMAS ALEXANDER American painter, was born in Philadelphia, Jan. 17, 1853. He was a pupil of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and of the des Beaux-Arts, Paris, whither he went in 1878, having previously been with a U.S. Government survey expedition on the Pacific coast. Chafing under the restraints of the schools, he went into Brittany, and at Pont Aven and Concarneau turned his attention to marine painting and landscape. In 1882 he sent a figure-piece to the Salon, a fisher boy on the beach, which he called, "Châteaux en Espagne." This piece attracted attention, and in 1885 he received an honourable mention, the first of many awards conferred upon him, including the Temple gold medal (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1887), first medal, Paris Exhibition (1889), and medals in Munich, Brussels, Ghent, Vienna and elsewhere.