With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Harold Barbour
Comic Art, Illustration, Painting/Drawing
1889 – 1961
A resident of Higganum (Haddam), Harold Barbour painted two WPA murals for the Portland high school (now Brownstone Intermediate School) as well as easel paintings for the Portland Board of Education and the Village for Families and Children in Hartford. His WPA work was in the Regionalist tradition of representational art.
- Biography/Description of Work
Harold Barbour and his wife moved to Higganum in 1929 and lived there until his death. In the 1930s, he worked for the Public Works of Art Project, and subsequent Federal Arts Project of the WPA. Under these programs, he painted 54 easel paintings on subjects such as tobacco farming and two murals c.1935-38, one depicting a scene from the Portland Quarry and the other a shipyard in Portland for the then Portland High School. A painter and illustrator, he was also a political cartoonist. He was active in the Central Connecticut Art Center in Marlborough, the Brainerd Memorial Library, serving as chair of the Board of Trustees, and was a member of the Haddam Historical Society, which holds the collection of his work. Barbour died in 1961.
- Sources view
- WPA CT web site: http://wpa.cslib.org/index.php/473/barbour-harold/ Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card;
The Harold Barbour Collection, Haddam Historical Society;”
“Mural Panels by Harold Barbour of Higganum for Portland High School Auditorium,” Hartford Courant, May 29, 1938;
“Exhibition,” Hartford Courant, December 11, 1968; “Harold Barbour Re-elected Head of Library,” Hartford Courant, June 2, 1959. - Associated Resource(s)