Ever since I first laid eyes upon the WWII portrait art of Alva V. Alegre, I knew that I had to track down an original piece of his work. I tracked down his original photographic prints, his negatives, and even have spoken with people knew him. I’ve followed him from his first arrival in the US in the 1930s, through England during WWII, to NYC in the 1950s and eventually to Troy, NY in the 1960s. After years of waiting, I providentially stumbled across one of his portraits on eBay. It’s all coming together…….
With the help of a group of dedicated historians with the 388th Bomb Group, we’ve (possibly) identified the Major as Frank Hess.
For more photos and images of Alva’s work, please search for “Alva” in my search bar.
Frank Hess
How do we know this is a piece of Alva’s work? For disbelievers, check out this comparison of signatures from my negative collection and the signature on the recently acquired painting. 100%!
Portraits of War 
What an awesome story. I love how you are like a pitbull: once you grab hold of a piece of history, you get the whole story.
I have an Alva Alegre painting of a semi-nude woman playing the piano. Just let me know if you like a pic of it! It’s awesome, one of my favorite paintings! Tim Frank
Fantastic! I just emailed you. Thanks for finding my site.
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