Post 3

 Abbott Handerson Thayer & Picasso

The dramatic change in oil paintings can be seen through the examination of paintings from the late 19^th century to the beginning of the 20^th century. By examining Abbott Handerson Thayer’s work, one can see the principles of the naturalist painters, while examining Pablo Picasso’s work, the principles of both cubist and later surrealist painters are evident. The following comparison will be of Thayer’s Angel (1887), which can be viewed at the Newark Museum’s exhibition Angels and Tomboys, and Picasso’s Girl before a Mirror (1932) and how the depiction of the subject had change as art advanced from the 19^th to the 20^th century.

In the 1880’s, the American artist, Abbott Handerson Thayer, had settled in rural New Hampshire where he had painted his more well-known classically inspired works of angels. According to Elizabeth Lee in “Therapeutic Beauty: Abbott Thayer, tuberculosis, and angels of art,” there seemed to exist a connection between Thayer’s choice of subject matter, angels, and the disease and death of his wife, Kate. Thayer’s wife had been hospitalized after her father’s death, being diagnosed with severe melancholia. Tuberculosis was seen as a byproduct of modernization and thus doctors agreed the goal was finding an environment “uncontaminated by civilization”. Therefore the rural environment of New Hampshire was beneficial for his wife’s health and served as the subject of his landscape paintings. Kate’s condition later was worsened by tuberculosis which led to the decline of her health and eventually to her death in 1891.

In Thayer’s Angel, the artist has chosen to depict his first and eldest daughter, Mary, as an angelic figure. Because the painting was painted before his wife’s death, Lee suggests that it may reference the “angel of death,” which was a phrase commonly use to describe tuberculosis. Lee adds that Mary’s pale, chalky skin, emphasized by the whiteness of her wings and robe convey a fragile appearance. Mary’s pale skin may reflect her mother’s own skin and fragile condition due to her sickness. Because white symbolizes purity, the whiteness of her wings and robe may also be Thayer’s comment on how his family is no longer “contaminated by civilization” due to them living in rural New Hampshire. His daughter being portrayed as angel and the angel being a symbol of hope may also symbolize the hopefulness Thayer possess for his wife’s recovery. Although, Thayer depicted his daughter in a naturalistic, classically inspired manner, it seems to reflect surrealism because of how angels do not exist in reality but are idealized and subjects of dreams.

Pablo Picasso, a Spanish painter, co-founded the Cubist movement alongside Georges Braque. With the emergence of the Cubist movement, the spatial conventions that dominated painting had been shattered. Cubist artists attempted to depict multiple perspectives all at once. In the early 20^th century, the surrealist movement had emerged which included the process of tapping the subconscious and depicting the vivid, dreamlike images. Picasso being a modern artist incorporated elements of Dada and Surrealism into his paintings. An analysis of Picasso’s Girl before a Mirror demonstrates the Cubist and Surrealist principles which he incorporated into his painting.

In Pablo Picasso’s Girl before a Mirror, the artist has depicted a young woman, whom Hunter suggest is Picasso’s new love Marie-Therese Walter, in front of an oval mirror which reflects a dark image. Hunter offers an analysis of Picasso’s painting saying Picasso has posed a golden-haired, lavender-fleshed, voluptuous young woman in front of an oval mirror, where with apparent serenity she considers her reflection, a dark, distorted and altogether sinister image. He adds saying as to accept the duality of her nature, the subject stretches her arm to grasp the mirror. Because the girl’s reflection is dark and opposite to herself, it seems Picasso may want to comment on people’s nature and how everyone may not be as they seem. The influence of Cubism can be seen in the depiction of the young woman and how her body consists of geometric planes and how her face can be simultaneously seen in both profile and full face. It has Surrealist principles because of how Picasso depicts a dreamlike and abstract figure. Picasso’s painting seems to be similar to Thayer’s Angel, in how both seem to depict positive and negative qualities within one image. The young woman in Picasso’s painting reflects a sinister image, the good reflects the dark; while in Thayer’s painting the whiteness of her skin, wings and robe may reflect purity and hope or may reflect his wife’s pale skin and fragile condition due to her sickness. From the late 19th century into the 20th century paintings dramatic changed with the influence of modernism. 

Link to Newark Museum

Works Cited

Lee, Elizabeth. " Therapeutic Beauty: Abbott Thayer, Tuberculosis, and Angels of Art." Hektoen International. N.p., 11 Nov. 29. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.hektoeninternational.org/therapeuticbeauty.html>.

Hunter, Sam., Jacobus, John., and Daniel Wheeler. Modern Art. 3rd Ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print.