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.
Rebecca Field (Jones)
Education/Curation, Painting/Drawing, Sculpture
1905 – 2002
WPA artist, long-time educator, and founder of the West Hartford Arts League.
- Biography/Description of Work
Born in Massachusetts, Rebecca Field attended Massachusetts State College for one year. She then spent a year or more studying in a private studio in Munich, Germany. In 1934, with painter and teacher Gertrude Patterson, Jones co-founded the West Hartford Art League and Art Center where she later taught. She worked for the Public Works of Art Project and then for the WPA Federal Arts Project from its inception in 1935 until 1938. In 1938 Jones left the WPA to join the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft drafting department. That same year she was elected president of the Arts and Crafts Club of Hartford. In 1941 she married Frederic Edward Jones, a well known sculptor from Farmington. Later in 1941 she joined the staff of Oxford School as an instructor in graphic arts and crafts, as well as history and art. Around this same period she was a committee member of the Hartford Society of Women Painters. She eventually taught sculpture at Miss Porter’s school until 1968.
- Sources view
- CT State Library WPA Art Inventory. http://wpa.cslib.org/index.php/586/field-rebecca/
West Hartford Art League web site. http://westhartfordart.org/history/ - Associated Resource(s)