Abbott Handerson Thayer was an American painter active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He painted portraits, figures, landscapes and still life subjects, but as known in particular for his portrayals of angels, or angelic figures.
These were distinguished from idealized angels in that they seem to be realized as portraits, the sitters sometimes members of the artist’s family.
Thayer was also a naturalist, and with his son, Gerald Handerson, produced a book on protective coloration in nature.
Thayer’s painting methods were a blend (or perhaps more correctly a mish-mash) of disparate techniques, from academic to experimental and even bizarre.
