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.
Edith Dale Monson
Painting/Drawing
1875 – 1977
- Biography/Description of Work
A graduate of Smith College in 1900, Monson studied in Paris and at the Art Students League with Robert Henri, founder of the Ashcan School of urban realism. Monson moved to Hartford in 1917. She was one of the most important female artists in the history of the Hartford Art Colony. Monson was a member, and ofttimes officer, of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, the New Haven Paint and Clay Club which she co-founded, the Society of Independent Artists, and the Hartford Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. She also fought for women’s causes, marching with the suffragettes and actively participating in the Connecticut League of Women Voters and in the Connecticut Consumers’ League against sweatshops. She often signed her paintings as “Dale Monson,” believing her art would sell better if thought to be by a mat. In 1932 she opened a studio on Main Street in Hartford and for many years gave lessons in painting and drawing. Her nephew, Shepherd Holcomb, gathered the contents of her studio after she died. An exhibition entitled ‘Edith Dale Monson: Hartford’s American Realist’ was on view at the University of Hartford in the 1970s.
- Associated Resource(s)
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