Anonymous. Harry Kendall Thaw and Evelyn Nesbit with Evelyn’s mother in Paris. Pencil. 3 ¼ x 5 ¾ inch.
Thaw pressed Evelyn to marry him, but she declined, eventually citing the loss of her virginity. Already obsessed with White, Thaw alternately blamed the “Beast,” Evelyn’s mother, and Evelyn herself, waking her up at night again and again to confess. Evelyn fought with her mother who had White pay her passage home. Thaw and Evelyn continued to sightsee, pretending to be married. In Domremy, Thaw wrote that Joan of Arc “would not have been a virgin if Stanford White had been around.”
Art: Edgar Chahine, En Promenade, 1905, public domain.
Thumbnail: Isaac Israels, Een bankje in het Bois de Boulogne, 1903, public domain
Christine Butterworth-McDermott 