CC0 · no rights reserved
Townsend Bradley Martin
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Townsend Bradley Martin was the grandson of Henry Phipps, the business partner of steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. In this portrait sketch of the young boy in a garden, Townsend’s shirt nearly disappears in the foliage. Abbott Thayer was fascinated with natural history, and he developed a theory of natural camouflage that is obvious in his paintings of animals but often creeps into his portraits as well. (Nemerov, “Vanishing Americans: Abbott Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Attraction of Camouflage,” American Art, Summer 1997)
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineTownsend Bradley Martin. 1919. Abbott Handerson Thayer, born Boston, MA 1849-died Dublin, NH 1921. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Grosvenor Backus. CC0.
