Hannah Tompkins (January 17, 1920 – October 25, 1995) was an American artist primarily known for her large body of artwork based on the writings of William Shakespeare.

[1] She began painting in earnest in the mid-1960s while teaching art at Ramapo Community College, Rockland County, New York.

[2] Born in the Williamsburg slum in Brooklyn, New York to Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants, third youngest of eight children, Tompkins found her love of Shakespeare as an adolescent while residing in various foster homes after being placed as a baby in the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum.

In 1937 she graduated Girls Commercial High School in NYC with an Art Diploma.

She became active in the progressive movement during the great depression and World War II during which she married artist Irving Fierstein.