Education
Vassar College.
Vassar College.
Thum received an honorable mention for book illustration of "Robbie and Annie: A Child"s Story" at the 1893 World"s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Patty Prather Thum, daughter of Mandeville and Louisiana (Miller) Thum, was born in Louisville, Kentucky on October 1, 1853. Thum studied art in New York at Vassar College with Henry VanIngen, and under William Merritt Chase, Henry Mowbray, and Lemuel M. Wiles at the New York Art Students League.
In the mid-1870s, Thum moved back to Louisville and began a career as a painter.
Thum had an art studio in Louisville for over 35 years. She is most well known for her landscape painting, but also painted still-lifes and portraits.
Influences and subjects
She painted private gardens in Jefferson and Oldham Counties with native trees being a focus of her work.