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Once
a major figure in American art and the era of civic art now known
as the American Renaissance, Abbott Thayer (1849-1921) has slipped
into an unfortunate obscurity, known only to a handful of artists
and museum visitors. Thayer was a singular undividual whose unique
style and way of presenting his subjects made him stand apart from
his contemporaries. His paintings were overwhelmingly of women,
but rather than pose his models in the fashionable clothing of the
demi-monde or place them in neo-classical settings like his contemporaries,
Thayer idealized his women, often giving them wings which made them
timeless monuments to femininity.
Instead
of chafing at the demands of family life as many artists do, Thayer
reveled in the closeness of his family and idealized women and children
in a way that few painters have done before or since. It is this
spiritual quality that elevated his work and gave his art a special
dignity. With the current interest in angels, Thayer's work is now
popular on greeting cards - even though few of those sending them
are familiar with the artist who painted them.
Abbott
Thayer admired the transcendent quality of Renaissance art and he
sought to achieve the same timeless spirituality in his own paintings
of women and children. His work was intensely personal in conception
and a close reading of his art and biography reveals that painting
- especially the domestic subjects that he favored - was a cathartic
experience for him. Charles Freer, the Detroit industrialist and
largest collector of Thayer's work, actually wrote to the artist
because he feared the paintings he was buying were almost too personal
for the artist to sell. The artist explained to Freer that his collecting
would just allow him to start painting another one.
The
respected art critic Royal Cortissoz, one of Thayer's friends, wrote
of him with the same respect he accorded George Inness, Winslow
Homer and John La Farge, the great figures of 19th-century American
art. He credits Thayer with giving "the period its noblest
monument in painting, the sublime Ascension, which belongs
to the church of that name in New York."
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