Sphinx Caterpillar, study for book Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the heirs of Abbott Handerson Thayer
Accession Number
1950.2.19B
Tags
Art Historical Context
Abbott Handerson Thayer *Sphinx Caterpillar, study for book Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom is a captivating example of art meeting science. Created around the early 1900s as a preparatory painting, it showcases Thayer's fascination with how animals blend into their environments. Thayer, an American artist known for his luminous portraits and landscapes in the Symbolist tradition, turned his keen observational skills to natural history, co-authoring the influential 1909 book *Concealing Coloration in the Kingdom* with his son This watercolor study depicts a sphinx caterpillar—likel...