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Our Plein Air Heritage
Better known for his idealistic and allegorical paintings of women as angels and Madonnas, Abbott Handerson Thayer (American, 1849–1921) regarded his landscapes as a form of portraiture. Aiming to stay true to nature, he painted these scenes en plein air, most often finding inspiration in views of Mount Monadnock, which overlooked his studio.
Upon learning that a group of developers wanted to purchase an expanse of “this dear mountain,” Thayer successfully organized the local community around its conservation. To support their work, he founded the Thayer Fund, which, through the National Audubon Society, paid for wardens to protect bird sanctuaries up and down the East Coast.
In this depiction, Thayer cast the majority of the scene in shadow, save for the stark white mountain peak illuminated by the rising sun in the dawn sky. He represented the mountaintop in thick, expressive strokes of paint, further differentiating the peak from the smoothly rendered landscape in the foreground.
So important was the mountain to the artist that upon his death his ashes were scattered on its summit.
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