Lot 627: Patty Prather Thum (American, 1853-1926), "The Fountain", c. 1900; oil/board, 22" x 26", signed;

signed and titled verso. Important Louisville, KY painter. Thum studied at the Art Students League with W.M. Chase, and in the mid-1880s, with Thomas Eakins, at the Student’s Guild of the Brooklyn Art Association. She was known primarily as a flower painter, although she did paint landscapes and portraits as well. She exhibited at the Columbian Expo (Chicago, 1893); New York State Fair (1898); Trans-Mississippi Expo, Omaha (1898); St Louis Expo (1904); and the National Academy of Design (1885-1899). She was a member of the Louisville Art Club, and her work is in the collections of the University of Kentucky (Lexington) and the Louisville Public Library. REF: Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, Gerdts; The Kentucky Painter from the Frontier Era to the Great War, Jones and Weber. A rare and important example of this artist’s work.