Thayer’s Winged Figure Cushion

Abbott Handerson Thayer, 1849 -1921 was an American artist, naturalist and teacher. As a painter of portraits, figures, animals and landscapes, he enjoyed a certain prominence during his lifetime, as shown by the fact that his paintings are in the most important U.S. art collections. Thayer's angels are his best-known paintings. As one art critic mused: "They come near to us, there is a lovely hint of the human and intimate in them, yet they are not of the earth." Thayer made no attempt to explain these enigmatic figures, saying only that the wings were meant to lift the figure out of the commonplace.