Happy Chinese New Year!

According to the ancient Chinese calendar, the year 4699 begins tonight with the rising of the moon.

Today we usher in the year of the snake with watercolors by Abbott Handerson Thayer.

Beware, our celebratory snakes are sneaky! In the first image, Thayer made the snake plainly visible through a copper overlay. In the second image, the overlay is removed, and the copperhead is well concealed, blending in with the dead leaves.

From his earliest attempts at painting, Thayer was drawn to animals and nature, finding subjects in the forests and streams of New England. His careful observation of nature and thorough academic training in the laws of color and values led him to study how animals use natural camouflage to conceal themselves from predators. With his son Gerald, he published his theories as Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom (1909).

Learn more about Abbott Handerson Thayer's fascinating life and work in our virtual exhibition.

Source: Abbott Handerson Thayer (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1999) at http://americanart.si.edu/collections/exhibits/thayer/index.html.

Pictured top: Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1849–1921, Copperhead Snake on Dead Leaves, about 1910–15, watercolor on cardboard and mounted on wood panel with hinged copper mask on front of frame, 9 1/2 x 15 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the heirs of Abbott Handerson Thayer.

Pictured bottom: Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1849–1921, Copperhead Snake on Dead Leaves, about 1910–15, watercolor on cardboard and mounted on wood panel, 9 1/2 x 15 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the heirs of Abbott Handerson Thayer.