Roseate Spoonbill, study for book Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom
ca. 1905-1909
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 21 × 26.9 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-130707
In 1909, Abbott Handerson Thayer and his son, Gerald, published a controversial book titled Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, offering their theory of animal camouflage. Thayer believed that the coloration of animals, no matter how eye-catching, was meant to disguise them in nature through what he called "countershading." Even bright pink flamingoes would vanish against a similar color…
Provenance
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the heirs of Abbott Handerson Thayer
Registry history
- ca. 1905-1909 — Recorded in the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum
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