# Portrait of a Woman (Miss Gertrude Bloede)

- By: Abbott Handerson Thayer (born Boston, MA 1849-died Dublin, NH 1921)
- Date: ca. 1881
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Classification: Paintings
- Dimensions: 16 5/8 x 14 in. (42.2 x 35.7 cm)
- Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly
- Museum: [Smithsonian Institution](https://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=23941)
- Rights: [CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/5ef62556bd439136f076cd9913e77937.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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.