Abbott Handerson Thayer Art

Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849 – 1921) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was a teacher, naturalist and painter. He was prominent during his lifetime as a painter of landscapes, animals, figures and portraits. He is perhaps best known for his paintings of 'angels', some of which use his children as models. His paintings are represented in the major American art collections. Thayer spent his childhood in rural New Hampshire, at the foot of Mount Monadnock, near Keene. That rural setting inspired him to become an amateur naturalist that acted as his starting point to become a full time artist. He attended the Chauncy Hall School in Boston at the age of 15. And it was here that he met an amateur artist, Henry D. Morse, whose guidance, he really helped to improve his painting skills. He mainly focused on birds and other wildlife. Many people agree that categorizing Thayer just as an artist is not sufficient. He was mercurial and eccentric, and there’s a parallel contradictory mixture of improvisation, spontaneity and academic tradition in his artistic methods. Thayer was largely known to paint "ideal figures", in which women were portrayed in flowing white tunics and as embodiments of virtue, and equipped with wings of angels. Surprisingly, he did these using unorthodox methods such as using a broom instead of a brush, or purposely mixing dirt into the paint. He used broom to lessen the sense of rigidity in a still-wet, newly finished painting. This unique style has made his art to be very popular to date, especially the ready to hang framed Abbott Handerson Thayer art.