Thayer, Abbott Handerson (1849 - 1921) View to Monadnock, circa

Thayer, Abbott Handerson (1849 - 1921)
View to Monadnock, circa 1910
signed "Abbott Thayer" lower right
oil on canvas
23 1/4" x 19 1/2"
An Artist Finds a H o m e
Happy, I said, whose home is h e r e ,
Fair fortunes to the mountaineer!
--Ralph Waldo Emerson, excerpt from Monadnoc (1846)
Abbott Henderson Thayer spent his youth in Keene, New Hampshire, surrounded by the verdurous
woods and majestic mountains to which he was emotionally attached. His earliest paintings were
wildlife subjects, and he was encouraged by animal painter Henry Morse (1826-1888) to pursue a
career in art while at boarding school in Boston. After graduation, he moved to New York City to
do so. He attended classes at the Brooklyn Art School and National Academy of Design, but in
1875 he settled in Paris, studying under Henri Lehmann (1814-1882) and Jean-Léon Gérôme
(1824-1904) at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. While abroad he produced landscapes and genre scenes
in the Barbizon style, and on his return to New York in 1879 he established himself as a painter of
figures and portraits.
Thayer’s early success coincided with personal tragedy, as the artist experienced the deaths of two
infant sons and his first wife in the span of just more than a decade. The loss of his first son caused
Thayer to seek solace in the transcendental writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose poem
Threnody, “a moving meditation on the loss of a child, assured him of the eternal laws governing
nature and man.”1
Thayer began spending summers in Dublin, New Hampshire in 1888, marking the beginning of the
Dublin Art Colony as it came to be known. Dublin and the nearby town of Cornish lured painters
who were in search of tamer, more intimate landscapes which were unaffected by the Civil War
and industrialization. In 1901, Thayer, his second wife, and his children settled in Dublin, and their
summer home became a permanent residence. From his house he had an awe-inspiring view of
Mount Monadnock, whose snowy peak became a motif in Thayer’s paintings for nearly two
decades. “Much influenced by the writings of Emerson, who wrote a poem about the peak, Thayer
regarded Monadnock as both a visual synecdoche of earthly experience and an emblem of earthly
transcendence.”2 The rugged terrain of Dublin dominated by the view of the mountain provided
endless inspiration for Thayer’s art, as well as a constant reminder of nature as both a product of
and path to a higher power.
View to Monadnock concentrates on subtle tones and the quiet sensitivity of nature, which are
distinctive characteristics of paintings by Dublin and Cornish Art Colony members. The
shimmering pattern of soft tonalities is accented by abbreviated brushstrokes of bright color. The
slender birch trees in the foreground frame the peak of Mount Monadnock, a fixture delineated by
broad avenues of paint. This technique links the artist to contemporary impressionist trends, yet
references the tonal inclinations of his associates.
-CRM
Provenance: From the trade to the gallery.
Presentation Notes: In a 5” reproduction Stanford White gilt frame. Expertly cleaned.
16043