Thomas Le Clear (March 11, 1818 – November 26, 1882) was an American painter.

He painted portraits in Elmira, and in Rochester, before moving to New York City in 1839, when he was twenty-one.

He returned to New York City in the early 1860s, and was elected a National Academician in 1863.

[3] Le Clear died of pleurisy on November 26, 1882, at his home in Rutherford, New Jersey, at the age of 64.

Of his numerous portraits, one of the best is that of George Bancroft, at the Century Club, New York; other excellent portraits are those of William Cullen Bryant, Bayard Taylor, Millard Fillmore, and Edwin Booth as Hamlet.