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Portrait of a Lady (Mrs. William B. Cabot) by Abbott Handerson Thayer / American Art
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Portrait of a Lady (Mrs. William B. Cabot)

1900-1902 Abbott Handerson Thayer Born: Boston, Massachusetts 1849 Died: Dublin, New Hampshire 1921 oil on canvas 39 x 32 3/8 in. (99.1 x 82.3 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of John Gellatly 1929.6.124 Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center



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Portrait of a Lady (Mrs. William B. Cabot)



This is a portrait of the wife of William Brooks Cabot, an accomplished civil engineer in Boston and a close friend of the artist’s. Abbott Thayer began working on Mrs. Cabot’s portrait when he was preparing to depart for Cornwall, England. He not only carried the canvas abroad with him, but also took Mrs. Cabot’s dress so he could refer to it as he completed the painting. Thayer exhibited the finished work at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1900; two years later, he showed it in Philadelphia with some alterations, about which he wrote to his wife, “I feel that the new hands and right arm I put on . . . at the end made Mrs. C.” (Hobbs, unpublished catalogue entry, SAAM curatorial files, 1978)

For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.


Keywords

Portrait female - Cabot, William B., Mrs.

painting

paint - oil

fabric - canvas

About Abbott Handerson Thayer

Born: Boston, Massachusetts 1849 Died: Dublin, New Hampshire 1921

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Abbott Handerson Thayer

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