THAW, Alexander Blair
Location:
Present Whereabouts Unknown.
The sitter was the son of Mrs Benjamin Thaw. On August 22, 1918 Lieutenant Alexander Blair Thaw of Pittsburg, son of Benjamin Thaw, was killed when his plane crashed over France (Altoona Tribune, Friday morning, August 23, 1918, p.9 – Allegheny County PA, Archives).
The following letter dated December 28, 1918, written from 640, Park Avenue, New York, is in the artist’s papers:
‘Dear Mr. Muller-Ury
While enclosing this check for one thousand dollars for the oil portrait of Blair which you painted as arranged with Mrs. Thaw, I want to repeat what you have already heard us say – that we are greatly pleased with it.
With the Season’s Greetings I am
Yours very truly, B. Thaw.’
Presumably the portrait was painted posthumously from a photograph.
