Abbott Handerson Thayer

Abbott Thayer was profoundly influenced by the spiritual and intellectual teachings of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was known among other artists in Dublin for strong ideas and an austere lifestyle: his house had no heat or tunning water. The extremes in his personality carried over to his working methods. He would labor tirelessly on each of his paintings, sometimes imploring his patrons to let him make changes after the sale of the work.

This portrait of Abbott Thayer's eleven-year-old daughter Gladys was executed for the Boston lithographer Louis Prang. It is part of a series of portraits intended for half-tone reproduction in an art textbook. His drawing style achieves a balance between gently blended tones and bold use of line. Thayer erased some of the pencil marks to suggest light and to soften some the dark areas of the piece. The frontal pose of the girl and her steadfast gaze gives this drawing a mesmerizing quality typical of his portraits of women.