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Peacock in the Woods
1907
Collaboration with Richard Meryman
oil
50.6 x 51.2 cm
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the heirs of Abbott H. Thayer



Thayer and his student Richard Meryman created this painting as an illustration for Thayer's book Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom (1909). More than a demonstration of the principles of natural camouflage, Peacock in the Woods is an excursion into optical complexity, wildlife art, and impressionist painting.