Brother and Sister (Mary and Gerald Thayer)

Abbott Handerson Thayer, Brother and Sister (Mary and Gerald Thayer), 1889, oil on canvas, 36 ¹⁄₄ x 28 ¹⁄₄ in. (92 x 71.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.114

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Artwork Details

Title: Brother and Sister (Mary and Gerald Thayer)
Artist: Abbott Handerson Thayer
Date: 1889
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 36 ¹⁄₄ x 28 ¹⁄₄ in. (92 x 71.9 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of John Gellatly
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Children
Portrait female — Thayer, Mary — child
Portrait group — family — siblings
Portrait male — Thayer, Gerald — knee length
Portrait male — Thayer, Gerald — child
Portrait female — Thayer, Mary — waist length
Object Number: 1929.6.114
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1929.6.114

Artwork Description

This work portrays Abbott Thayer's children one year after their mother's hospitalization for "melancholia," or severe depression. Kate Thayer became physically ill while hospitalized, and Thayer wrote to a friend that her physical deterioration would not be so horrible "were her soul visible" (Anderson, Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1982). Thayer captured the sadness and worry of this difficult period in Mary's heavy-lidded, watery eyes and in Gerald’s searching expression. They look like a modern-day Madonna and Child. Their mother would live for two more years, but in this portrait it is as if Mary has already taken on her mother's role in the family. After Kate died, Thayer clung to his children as an emotional anchor, and he often depicted them as sacred figures.