Child's Head

Thayer, who was born in Boston, spent time in rural New Hampshire. In addition to painting, Thayer was a naturalist, birdwatcher, hunter and taxidermist. After studying at the National Academy of Design and the Brooklyn Art School in New York, the artist traveled to Europe and studied in Paris.

The artist came to Dublin, New Hampshire in 1888 and established what would become an art colony, attracting painters like Frank Benson, Alexander James, Richard Meryman and Rockwell Kent, who spent summers among the group. Thayer settled in Dublin in 1901 at the foot of Mount Monadnock.

Among his portrait sitters were authors Mark Twain and Henry James. He was devastated by the loss in the 1880s of two of his children and the subjects of many of his paintings were the three surviving Thayer children: Mary, Gerald and Gladys. Our charming sketch may be a study for one of those portraits.