Artwork Details
23-1/2 x 23 in. (canvas) 65 x 60 in. (framed)
Accession NumberGift of the Friends of American Art.
CopyrightAmerican Painting and Sculpture 1800-1945
Color PaletteProvenance
Provenance
(E.and A. Milch, Inc., New York, New York); purchased by the John Herron Art Institute, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Indianapolis, Indiana in 1925.
Gallery Labels
Gallery Labels
- Thayer painted twelve-year-old Margaret McKittrick with tousled hair and an open gaze to capture the innocence and natural beauty of young womanhood. The soft edges of her figure have an ethereal quality that is reminiscent of Thayer's many paintings of angels.
- The spontaneous brushwork belies the fact that the artist probably worked intermittently on this painting for several years. He believed that he channeled his inspiration best through three-day bursts of painting activity.
- To reinforce a sense of timeless beauty in his portraits of women and children, Thayer often set them in elaborate Renaissance-style frames.
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