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Portrait of a Woman (Miss Gertrude Bloede) by Abbott Handerson Thayer / American Art
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Portrait of a Woman (Miss Gertrude Bloede)

ca. 1881 Abbott Handerson Thayer Born: Boston, Massachusetts 1849 Died: Dublin, New Hampshire 1921 oil on canvas 16 5/8 x 14 in. (42.2 x 35.7 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of John Gellatly 1929.6.125 Smithsonian American Art Museum
3rd Floor, Luce Foundation Center



“About her head or floating feet/No halo’s starry gleam/Still dark and swift uprising, like/A bubble in a stream.” Stuart Sterne, “My Father’s Child,” reprinted in Stedman, ed., An American Anthology, 1787–1900, 1900


Gertrude Bloede was the sister of Abbott Thayer’s first wife, Kate. The Bloedes were German immigrants who lived in Brooklyn and regularly entertained a circle of intellectuals. Both daughters were highly creative and independent: Kate was an artist, and Gertrude was a noted writer who published her romantic poetry under the pseudonym Stuart Sterne. In this portrait sketch, Thayer gave his sister-in-law a faraway look, as though she were lost in thought, perhaps composing a poem.

For more information about this work visit the Luce Foundation Center.


Keywords

Portrait female - Bloede, Gertrude, Miss - bust

painting

paint - oil

fabric - canvas

About Abbott Handerson Thayer

Born: Boston, Massachusetts 1849 Died: Dublin, New Hampshire 1921

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