DOI Heft:
No. 70 (January 1899)
DOI Artikel:D'Anvers, N.: An american painter: Abbott H. Thayer
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19230#0284
An American Painter
i 4
Bh.<
ally led to that series of
observations and experi-
ments which resulted in
the discovery of a hitherto
unsuspected law con-
nected with the protective
colouration of animals,
which has now won
for him recognition
amongst zoologists as an
original observer and an
important contributor to
natural science. Any
description of this dis-
covery would be out of
place in an art magazine,
but it may be added that
the principle involved is
that the gradation in the
colouring of animals is
the real cause of the phe-
nomenon of protective
colouration. Through the
later years of his art career,
forming as it were a strong
undercurrent in his life,
Abbott Thayer cherished
the ambition of getting
naturalists to recognise
the discovery he had made,
but he found few to agree
with him. Now at last,
-------- ■-1 however, he has been
"THE ANGEL" FROM A PAINTING BY ABBOTT H. THAYER allowed tO put Up both in
{By permission of Messrs. Curtis and Cameron, New York) the Oxford and Cambridge
Museums, and in that of
some instruction from a jeweller of Dorchester, who South Kensington, a permanent demonstration of
had a studio in connection with his shop and was his theory, a success which elates him perhaps as
clever at drawing animals. much as any of the triumphs of his brush.
The young Abbott soon began to earn a little Though no hint had yet been given of his future
money by painting dog-portraits, for which lie was celebrity in science or in art, Abbott Thayer soon
paid at first ten dollars only, but before he left became known in New York as an animal painter,
school he received as much as fifty dollars each, but he was too good a judge to be at all satisfied
His parents wished him to become an engineer with his own work, and soon after his marriage in
and entered his name for the Massachusetts Tech- 1875 he decided to go to Paris, then, as now,
nological Institute, but his love of art was too the eagerly desired goal of American art students,
strong to be resisted, and in 1869 he was allowed This resolve showed no little courage, for his
to take a studio in Brooklyn, where he devoted means were small and the journey to the French
himself entirely to painting. The summer he still capital made a formidable reduction in his slender
spent in the country, and during the winter he resources.
worked several hours daily at copying from the The young couple took a room at the top of
antique and making studies of the animals in an hotel in the Avenue Victoria, much frequented
Central Park, New York. by English-speaking artists, and Abbott worked
It was probably these early studies that eventu- steadily for four winters in the Ecole des Beaux
253
i 4
Bh.<
ally led to that series of
observations and experi-
ments which resulted in
the discovery of a hitherto
unsuspected law con-
nected with the protective
colouration of animals,
which has now won
for him recognition
amongst zoologists as an
original observer and an
important contributor to
natural science. Any
description of this dis-
covery would be out of
place in an art magazine,
but it may be added that
the principle involved is
that the gradation in the
colouring of animals is
the real cause of the phe-
nomenon of protective
colouration. Through the
later years of his art career,
forming as it were a strong
undercurrent in his life,
Abbott Thayer cherished
the ambition of getting
naturalists to recognise
the discovery he had made,
but he found few to agree
with him. Now at last,
-------- ■-1 however, he has been
"THE ANGEL" FROM A PAINTING BY ABBOTT H. THAYER allowed tO put Up both in
{By permission of Messrs. Curtis and Cameron, New York) the Oxford and Cambridge
Museums, and in that of
some instruction from a jeweller of Dorchester, who South Kensington, a permanent demonstration of
had a studio in connection with his shop and was his theory, a success which elates him perhaps as
clever at drawing animals. much as any of the triumphs of his brush.
The young Abbott soon began to earn a little Though no hint had yet been given of his future
money by painting dog-portraits, for which lie was celebrity in science or in art, Abbott Thayer soon
paid at first ten dollars only, but before he left became known in New York as an animal painter,
school he received as much as fifty dollars each, but he was too good a judge to be at all satisfied
His parents wished him to become an engineer with his own work, and soon after his marriage in
and entered his name for the Massachusetts Tech- 1875 he decided to go to Paris, then, as now,
nological Institute, but his love of art was too the eagerly desired goal of American art students,
strong to be resisted, and in 1869 he was allowed This resolve showed no little courage, for his
to take a studio in Brooklyn, where he devoted means were small and the journey to the French
himself entirely to painting. The summer he still capital made a formidable reduction in his slender
spent in the country, and during the winter he resources.
worked several hours daily at copying from the The young couple took a room at the top of
antique and making studies of the animals in an hotel in the Avenue Victoria, much frequented
Central Park, New York. by English-speaking artists, and Abbott worked
It was probably these early studies that eventu- steadily for four winters in the Ecole des Beaux
253