Object Details
- Label
- Monadnock mountain rises impressively near the property once occupied by Abbott Thayer at Dublin, New Hampshire. Thayer was profoundly attracted by the mountain, spending many hours on its wooded slopes studying the flora and fauna of the region.
- The artist preferred to paint Mount Monadnock during the early morning hours when its peak was struck by sunlight. He emphasized the distant drama of the rising sun by leaving the foreground of the canvas broadly painted and cast into shadow. The artist's distinctive violet and green tones in this area convey a sense of extreme stillness and cold.
- Like many of his contemporaries, Thayer studied the seasonal changes as they were reflected in nature, and he recorded them in numerous paintings of Monadnock Mountain. While he was executing this canvas, for example, he described how he wanted to capture the exact "value of the trees and snow." Thayer's belief in such fidelity to nature was expressed in a letter to Freer in which he called this painting "a winter portrait of Monadnock at sunrise."
- The artist was, nevertheless, an expressive painter who depicted far more than just the facts of visual reality. He wanted his works to grip the viewer and convey to him the same emotions felt by the artist in the presence of nature. Thayer told Freer in fact, that he "dreamed" that Monadnock in Winter was "one of my most vivid landscapes or perhaps the vividest."
- Provenance
- From 1904 to 1919
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Abbott Handerson Thayer in 1904 [1]
- From 1920
- Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]
- Notes:
- [1] Object file.
- [2] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
- Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art Collection
- Exhibition History
- A Perfect Harmony (October 14, 2017 to October 8, 2023)
- American Art - Abbott Handerson Thayer (May 9, 1996 to June 30, 1997)
- Winter into Spring: American Landscapes (March 4, 1982 to June 1, 1982)
- American Paintings: Abbott Handerson Thayer 1849-1921 (December 11, 1976 to April 18, 1977)
- American Paintings (July 1, 1974 to December 5, 1975)
- American Paintings (September 8, 1961 to May 2, 1973)
- Untitled Exhibition, American Oil Paintings, 1958 (June 29, 1958 to October 27, 1959)
- Centennial Exhibition, Galleries 8 and 9 (February 25, 1956 to April 28, 1958)
- Special Centennial Exhibition of Thayer Paintings (August 12, 1949 to January 3, 1950)
- Untitled Exhibition, American Oil Paintings, Gallery 4, 1947 (September 25, 1947 to February 25, 1956)
- Untitled Exhibition, American Oil Paintings and Watercolors (May 10, 1945 to September 25, 1947)
- Untitled Exhibition, University of Michigan Club, Detroit, 1914 (1914)
- Kansas City Exposition (January 1912)
- A Selection of Art Objects from the Freer Collection Exhibited in the New Building of the National Museum (April 15 to June 15, 1912)
- Exhibition of Paintings by T.W. Dewing, A.H. Thayer, D.W. Tryon, J.A.McNeill Whistler (February 10 to 26, 1910)
- 101st Annual Exhibition (January 22, 1906 - March 03, 1906)
- Inaugural Loan Collection of Paintings (May 31 to July 1, 1905)
- Previous custodian or owner
- Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921) (C.L. Freer source)
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
- Data Source
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
- Artist
- Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921)
- Date
- 1904
- Credit Line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- H x W: 90.5 x 90.5 cm (35 5/8 x 35 5/8 in)
- Type
- Painting
