Angel was the first work by the artist in the genre

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One artist who is famous for his allegoric use of angels is Abbott Handerson Thayer. In fact, "if a single motif pervades the art and life of Abbott Thayer it is that of wings... angels are symbols of God's transcendent presence and blessing." (Ross Anderson Abbott Handerson Thayer Syracuse, NY Everson Museum, 1982 p.11). The National Museum of American Art has several major works by Thayer, including Angel (1888), Virgin Enthroned (1891) and Stevenson Memorial (1903). The artist portrays his females with a combination of idealism and realism that permits them to embody the contrasting qualities of virginity and motherhood, chastity and fecundity, purity and sensuality. In addition to Nordic women and children, New England wildlife and landscapes were subjects of Thayer's art.

For which he is best known. Thayer used his daughter Mary as the model. In truth, the painting is more successful in portraying a sweet, attractive, yet unaffective girl than an angel. The problem is phone number list that the wings lack an organic unity with the rest of the composition. They are almost a distraction. The painting would be complete without them. Virgin Enthroned is a tripartite composition in the classical style. Here, all three of Thayer's children served as models. Stevenson Memorial was painted to commemorate Robert Louis Stevenson.

Thayer used Bessie Price, one of his Irish domestics, as his model. Despite her socio-economic status, there was nothing coarse in Bessie's appearance. Instead, she "had an expression of angelic purity and great dignity, a sentiment of spirtual nobility that seemed divinely ordained for Thayer's sympathetic interpretation." (Nelson C. White, Abbott H. Thayer: Painter and Naturalist, Hartford, Connecticut Printers Inc., 1951, p.76). Photographs of Miss Price show that the artist needed little idealization of his model to achieve his desired effect. It is gratifying to report that several years after Stevenson Memorial was painted, Bess married a local New Hampshireman and settled down to raise a large family.