
N. American Indians, study folder for book Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom
Catalogue
- Dimensions
- closed: approx. 12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
- Collection
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Artist
- Abbott Handerson Thayer
Artist

Mixed Media
Abbott Handerson Thayer was an American painter and theorist of camouflage whose work bridged late 19th-century academic portraiture and early modernist abstraction. Known for luminous figure paintings and allegorical compositions, he developed an influential theory of protective coloration in nature that extended into his artistic practice. His writings on camouflage and concealment in animal and human form shaped both artistic and military thinking in the early twentieth century. Thayer's late work became increasingly abstract, exploring the relationship between visibility, color, and form.
Full artist profile →More
More by Abbott Handerson Thayer

Townsend Bradley Martin
1919 · oil paint

Girl Arranging Her Hair
1918 · oil paint

Winter Sunrise, Monadnock
1917 · oil paint

Copperhead Snake on Dead Leaves, study for book Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom
1912 · watercolor on cardboard mounted on wood panel

Frog
1912 · paper

Mount Monadnock
1911 · oil paint
Record
Verified by Watts Index- Artist
- Abbott Handerson Thayer
- Dimensions
- closed: approx. 12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
- Watts ID
- WW-UNK-066970
Source
- Collection
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Source
- smithsonian
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified