Renewed interest in lost Depression paintings

MERIDEN, Conn.—During the Great Depression, Meriden artist John Backstrom created 12 landscape paintings a month as part of a federal employment project. He never knew what happened to most of the canvases.

Seventy years later, the whereabouts of much of the artwork by Backstrom and 168 other Connecticut artists remain largely a mystery.

The Works Progress Administration's Federal Artists Project, operating from 1935 to 1943, was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. The WPA employed millions of Americans, and that effort extended as well to unemployed artists.

In an interview with the Record-Journal a couple of years before he died, in 1983, Backstrom said he was able to make it through the Depression by painting. Artists were paid hourly wages and were required to fill out work cards.

The worksheets show the destination, or allocation, of some of the works, but that information does not necessarily help when it comes to locating the artwork today, because many of the destinations are simply no longer there. Others have changed hands, and in many cases there was no systemized method of keeping track of WPA art.

Worksheets indicate that a large number of art pieces were sent to Wallingford elementary schools in the late 1930s, for example. But those schools, including Simpson School, have been torn down since or changed hands. Wallingford's Jerry Farrell Jr., a local history buff, could not recall a trace of what may have happened to the paintings.

The situation is not unique to Connecticut. WPA work by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko was left nearly on the trash heap. Their work was included in WPA art that was purchased, in bales of canvas, for four cents a pound at a federal warehouse in Flushing, N.Y.

An oil landscape by Backstrom, though not part of his WPA work, was recently uncovered in the storage shed of the Meriden Historical Society. It depicts Mirror Lake with Castle Craig in the background.

"I wouldn't doubt that there are a lot of Backstroms around," said Allen Weathers, curator of the Meriden Historical Society.

One piece of Backstrom's WPA art is among 26 others in storage at the Southbury Training School, part of the state Department of Developmental Services. Partly because of renewed interest in WPA art, those works may become part of an exhibit and eventually find more prominent display.

More than 5,000 works, including murals, easel paintings and sculpture, were produced by Connecticut artists under the federal program.

WPA works were sent to both private and public institutions, and it's not out of the question that some might be in somebody's home, said Mark H. Jones, state archivist at the Connecticut State Library in Hartford.

"They might be; these things went everywhere," said Jones.

Last year, the state legislature allocated about $150,000 to compile an inventory of Connecticut WPA art. The initial step, said Jones, is putting together biographical information about each participating artist. So far, the state library has photographs of artwork for 90 of the artists as well, he said. Eventually, the biographies and photographs will be posted on the library Web site.

"I think it will be a great resource for people who want to do art history in Connecticut," said Jones.

The next step will involve identifying the surviving works of art and their locations.

"In the second year we'll try to make a systematic effort to find the art," Jones said.

Compiling the information into a database has been the summer project of Nolan Pelletier, a 2007 Southington High School graduate who is entering his second year at the Ontario College of Art & Design, where he is majoring in illustration.

"I'm interested in the history and art," said Pelletier. "It's interesting to see how the styles have changed."

In many cases tracking down WPA art is a complicated task. WPA murals were on display at the 1939 New York World's Fair, but sometimes mistaken for work under the program is another New Deal initiative that placed murals in post offices. That program, established in 1934, was funded by the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture.

The Southington Post Office has one such mural, titled "Romance in Southington," a 1942 oil on canvas by Ann Hunt Spencer.

"From time to time, people ask questions about it," said Glen Kucharczyk, postmaster of the Southington office, which opened in 1940.

In Backstrom's 1983 obituary, the Record-Journal noted the artist's observation that during the Depression he "always made enough money to live on. I never had to worry." Born in Yalesville in 1900, Backstrom painted portraits of Babe Ruth and Marilyn Monroe, among other celebrities.

Recognizing the historic value of WPA art, the state Department of Developmental Services did its own inventory of paintings at the Southbury Training School in the early 1990s, said Joan C. Barnish, the department's communications director. Those works include one by Backstrom, titled "Farm House with Firewood."

The department does not know what happened to WPA paintings that were allocated to the Undercliff sanitarium, in Meriden, however. The sanitarium treated patients with the highly contagious tuberculosis, but by 1927, patients were being transferred to other state facilities and Undercliff became a treatment area for children.

At least two WPA works by Meriden-born Isabella Ruth Doerfler were allocated to the Undercliff sanitarium.

Doerfler specialized in flower studies in watercolor. According to Doerfler's program worksheets, her watercolors "Flowers" and "Zinnia Study with Aqua Bowl" were allocated to Undercliff. The state Department of Public Works occupies buildings there today.

Doerfler produced 62 works under the WPA. Born in 1883, she began painting at age 10 while attending public school in Meriden.

Doerfler, who died in 1954 at age 71, was a graduate of the Yale School of Art and was a teacher, children's book illustrator, antiques decorator and designer for publishing houses.

The worksheet records do not say where many works of art were allocated, which leaves the inventory project dependent upon the help of local communities. More information about the artists is also welcome, said Jones.

"I'm hoping the public will be able to add more information," he said. "We've gotten a lot of help from local people."

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Those with information are encouraged to contact Jones, either by calling 860-757-6511 or e-mailing to mjones(at)cslib.org.