A Family Affair

Gladys Thayer, the daughter of Abbott Handerson Thayer, was born on this day in 1886.

But Abbott was not the only painter in the family! Gladys and her brother Gerald painted Hooded Warblers, shown above. If you go to the online exhibition Abbott Handerson Thayer, you can see how this painting and its overlay demonstrate the bird's natural camouflage!

Gladys and Gerald are depicted (far left and right) in their father's work, My Children. Although the painting may appear to be unfinished, Thayer signed it and inscribed it "never to be retouched, not one pinpoint."

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: Gladys Thayer and Gerald H. Thayer, Hooded Warblers, about 1900–1909, watercolor on paper, stencil, and oil on wood, , Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the heirs of Abbot Handerson Thayer.

Pictured bottom: Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1849–1921, My Children (Mary, Gerald, and Gladys Thayer), about 1897, oil, 86 1/4 x 61 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly.