WPA Art Inventory Project

Paul Saling was born in Germany in 1876. The year that he came to the United States and settled in Hartford is unknown. He studied art in Germany, in Hartford under Charles Noel Flagg and William Gedney Bunce, and with the Connecticut League of Art Students. From 1914-1923 the Hartford Courantcarried evidence that one Paul E. Saling was a decorator with an office on Pratt Street. One advertisement said that his services included mural decorating, designing, canvas ceilings, paper hanging, and painting interiors and exteriors; and an article described him as an interior decorator and an artist.

As an artist, Saling painted oils, and his subjects were landscapes and marine topics. He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) which was composed of established artists in the Hartford area. He was also a member of the Connecticut League of Art Students, the American Federation of Arts, the Salmagundi Club of New York City, and the Society of Independent Artists. He won prizes at CAFA and was juror for several shows. During the Depression Saling worked for the Public Works of Art Project and his paintings were hung at the Children’s Museum. For the Federal Arts Project, he completed an easel entitled Cider Mill in the Hills and painted Scenery possibly for a diorama or exhibit at the Connecticut Game Reservation in Westbrook. For the last few years of his life, he lived in Lyme. Saling died at Hartford Hospital in March 1936 and is buried in the city’s exclusive Cedar hill Cemetery.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Art Inventory Database of PWAP artists; AskART; Who’s Who in American Art (1985), p. 539; Hartford Courant: “Do You Know,” November 10, 1914; Display Ad 33, April 3, 1922; “Interior Decorating and Paul E. Saling,” April 1, 1923; “Paul E. Saling, Painter, Moves,” May 25, 1924; “Paul Saling, 59, Local Artist, Dies, Hartford Hospital,” March 7, 1936.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Paul Saling:

Joseph Scarrozzo studied art under Sanford Low at the Art League of New Britain, Connecticut. Low and Walter Korder suggested that Scarrozzo join the WPA Federal Arts Project. He completed four watercolor works and one mural entitled, Early Life of Nathan Hale, which is installed at the Nathan Hale Junior High School in New Britain. Later he worked for the Stanley Works in New Britain: his art appears in the company’s old publications. He was a member and an officer of the Connecticut Water Color Society, and he exhibited his works locally. Scarrozzo was born in 1916. His date of death is unknown.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Allocation Card; “Avery’s Art Show Called Series’ Best,” Hartford Courant, November 4, 1942; “Bleak Month Finds Colorful Art Display,” Hartford Courant,” November 4, 1963; “Selection Panel Sought for Special Art Show,”Hartford Courant, August 11, 1964; “Three Artists Take Tops in Exhibits,” Hartford Courant, October 6, 1964; Photo Stand-alone 10 [group photograph with Scarrozzo in it], Hartford Courant, October 16, 1964; “Artist Displays Various Media In Bridgeport,” Hartford Courant, December 23, 1972; “Art/Watercolor Show, Part II,” Hartford Courant, April 23, 1978; “Art/A Range of Watercolors at Atheneum,”Hartford Courant, October 29, 1978; “Art/New Haven,” New York Times, December 9, 1989; Lois Blonstrann, “The Great Depression, the W.P.A., and the F. A. P. (Federal Arts Project),” New Britain Industrial Museum Quarterly, Vol. IX, Issue 2; “Rutkoski’s New Mural,” WPA Federal Arts Project Newsletter August (year unknown.)

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Joseph Scarrozzo:

Heinrich Carl Schlichting was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 21, 1885. After graduating from Brown’s Business School in Brooklyn, he followed his love for painting, studying in a New York art school. About 1908 the Schlichting family moved to Darien. During World War I he served overseas with the 56th Coast Artillery. He was prominently identified with the Darien Guild of Seven Arts during its existence. He first worked for the Public Works of Art Project and then joined the WPA Federal Arts Project in November of 1935 and painted 13 works of art. His work was allocated to schools in Stamford: Stamford High School, Springdale School, Willard School, Center School, and Hart School. Schlichting died in Stamford, Connecticut on January 13, 1944 at the age of 58.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; Obituary of William Schlichting, Stamford Advocate, January 14, 1944.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Heinrich Schlichting:

Carl Schmitt was born in Warren, Ohio on May 6, 1889. His father was a musician and music teacher, and both parents encouraged the young Schmitt’s talent in art. Zell Hart Deming, owner of the Warren Chronicle, recognized his talent in her salons for writers and artists, and when he was seventeen, she bankrolled his studies in New York. Schmitt first attended the Chase School in 1906 and took classes from William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, founder of the Ashcan School of Artists. In 1907 he entered the National Academy of Design to study under Emil Carlsen. After he graduated from the Academy, he went to study in Florence, Italy with the help of Zell Hart Deming. In 1913-1914 he studied at the Academy of Fine Design under Mathias Duval and discovered the Italian artists of the Renaissance. In 1916 Schmitt established a studio in New York and discussed his ideas of art with Deming’s nephew, writer Hart Crane, Conrad Aiken, Van Wyck Brooks, and movie pioneer Robert Flaherty. Schmitt was especially interested in the relationship between poetry and painting. From this intellectual interchange came Schmitt’s ideas and aesthetic theories about which he wrote in essays throughout his notebooks. Schmitt soon tired of the hectic pace of city life and made the decision to move to Silvermine in Norwalk, Connecticut. He married and bought an 18^thcentury stone structure which required renovation across from the sculptor Solon Borglum. The two became friends and co-founded the Silvermine Guild of Artists.  

Since his childhood, Schmitt had been fighting tuberculosis, and after a harsh reoccurrence of the disease, he entered a sanatorium in the Italian Alps. His wife and ten children accompanied him to Italy. He loved the country and admired Michaelangelo, and he decided to remain there as an expatriate painter. However, the rise of Hitler and Mussolini forced him to return with his family to the United States in 1939. With the help of his wife’s father, Schmitt built a new home in Silvermine. He illustrated the book Higher than the Wind Can Blow by A.F. Wilson. During the Depression he first worked for the Public Works for Art Project and then for the WPA Federal Arts Project for a few months in 1936. During that period he created 14 large pieces of art for various public institutions. His work was allocated to Cedarcrest Sanatorium, Undercliff Sanatorium, Green School in Manchester, State Teachers College in New Haven, West Hartford Schools, and Connecticut National Guard Aviation Hangar. Schmitt died on October 25, 1989, on his 71^st wedding anniversary at the age of 100.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; AskART; The best source for information about Carl Schmitt is the Carl Schmitt Foundation’s web page at http://carlschmitt.org.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Carl Schmitt:

Joseph Carl Schork was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1902. At the age of 15 he became an errand boy at the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in New Haven, Connecticut. He attended the Winchester Trade School and became a machinist. He also attended classes at the New Haven Evening High School. Schork received three years of private instruction in art from Herman Sodersen. With money he saved up from his job as a machinist, he entered the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1926. He attended Yale for five years before graduating in 1931 with a Bachelors in Fine Arts. For several years he assisted a number of prominent artists and architects with large mural commissions. During the Depression Schork first worked for the Public Works of Art Project and then moved on to the WPA Federal Arts Project, completing 22 works. They were allocated to Hamden High School, Mansfield State Hospital, Meriden High School, Columbus School, Yalesville School, Middlesex County Temporary Home, Cedarcrest Sanatorium, Kimberly Avenue School, Fairfield State Hospital, Nathan Hale School, Laurel Heights Sanatorium, the Consolidated School, Norwich State Hospital, Redding Hill School, Long Lane Farm, Senate Office Building, Mansfield State Hospital, and the Quinnipiac Council Boy Scouts. Schork died in Guilford, Connecticut in 1965.

Source: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; Evelyn Frieden.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Joseph Schork:

Little is known about Rubin Schwartz except that he completed 13 works for the WPA Federal Arts Project from 1938-40. He was assigned to the project on December 15, 1936. Only one of his easel paintings was allocated, and that was to the Cedarcrest Sanatorium. The dates of Schwartz’s birth and death are unknown.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Allocation Card.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Rubin Schwartz:

Elinor Lathrop Sears was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1902. She studied art as a student of Hale, Logan, Mora, and Calder and became known for her miniatures, pastels, and portraits. She was associated with the Lyme Art Association and exhibited there. Sears was also a member of the Hartford Art Society, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, and the American Water Color Society. H. Viggo Anderson wrote an article about her exhibit of children’s pastel portraits at the Hartford Town and Country Club in the April 24, 1929 Hartford Courantconcluding that “Sears always catches her subjects in moods most characteristic of them.” The portraits were of children “in natural, unstudied poses” which was “the secret of their great appeal.” Working for the WPA Federal Arts Project from 1935-1936, Sears completed fourteen works. She published a book entitled Pastel Painting Step by Step in 1947.  She lived for many years in Old Lyme, Connecticut and died there in 1988.

Sources:  WPA Artist’s Work Card; AskART; Who Was Who In American Art (1985), p. 556; Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters (1986) p. 835; Social Security Death Index under “Elinor Adams;” New York Times: “Lyme Art Association Shows Its Work,” August 7, 1927; “Another Show At Lyme,” August 5, 1928; “Gleams on the Horizon,” June 14, 1936; “Frank W. Adams, Aide of Fuller Brush Co.,” January 21, 1952; Hartford Courant,: H. Viggo Andersen, “Shows Love of Children In Portraits,” April 24, 1929; Photo Stand-alone 39, December 27, 1931; Photo Standalone 2, August 6, 1944; Article 11, February 15, 1948.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Elinor Sears:

George Shellhase was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1899. He attended the Industrial Art School and Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and the Art Students League in New York City. He came to New York City in 1916. He was an illustrator-cartoonist and had his work published in the New York Evening Post the New York Herald Tribune. He enlisted in the Army in 1917, serving in the AIR EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. After the war he was a regular contributor to theNew Yorker and, Colliers, Esquire, Cosmopolitan for the rest of his life. While working in the WPA Shellhase resided in Rowayton, CT. He completed around 58 paintings. In fact, he was known for his watercolors as well as his cartoons. He taught drawing and painting at the New England School of Arts in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Shellhase died in a nursing home in Ocean Ridge, Florida at the age of 93.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; AskART under the surname “Shellbase;” Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, (1987), p. 846. There are innumerable articles about Shellhase and showing his cartoons in the New York Times. The author has chosen to cite “Group Art Shows on List this Week,” October 21, 1935; and his obituary, December 16, 1988.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from George Shellhase:

Arba Skidmore was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the Mohegan Lake School in New York and the Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Before becoming an artist, he worked as a salesman for Chase and Sanborn for several years. Skidmore left this job to study art at the Art Students League in New York for one year before World War One. After the war he attended evening classes at the League for three years. He began work in the field of commercial art and did art work and production for Remington Fire Arms Company and created freelance illustrations for magazines for three years. During the Depression Skidmore lived in Westport, Connecticut. He first worked for the Public Works of Art Project and then for the WPA Federal Arts Project, creating 51 works of art, mainly enlargements of insects. His works were allocated to Westport Elementary Schools, Undercliff Sanatorium, Stratford High School, Portland High School, Middlesex County Temporary Home, Fairfield State Hospital, Undercliff Sanatorium, Whittlesey Avenue School in Wallingford, Norwich State Hospital, and Long Lane Farm. The dates of Skidmore’s birth and death are unknown.

Source: WPA Artist’s WPA Biography.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Arba Skidmore:

Henry Skreczko was born on October 23, 1906, in New York City. Soon after his birth his family moved to Shelton, Connecticut where he attended the local public schools. He studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts for four years. After graduating he assisted on several mural jobs in New York City under Griffith Bailey Cole, Leroy Daniel McMorris, Rambush Decorating, Macy’s Design Studio, and Gugler, the architect. Skreczko worked for the Public Works of Art Project and then for the WPA Federal Arts Project in 1936, completing twenty works. They were allocated to Shelton High School, Sterling Theatre, Manchester Board of Education, West Hartford Schools, Roosevelt School, and Shelton High School.  He also took photos for the project and a cryptic note on his WPA work card states that “Photographs of Connecticut” were allocated to “Department of Contemporary Art in New York.” Skreczko’s date of death is unknown.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Henry Skreczko:

Thomas O’Conor Sloane, Jr. worked for the WPA Federal Arts Project taking photographs of historic Connecticut interiors. A gum print that he created was shown at the Connecticut Tercentenary exhibition in New Haven.  He is the son of Isabel X. Mitchel and Dr. Thomas O’Conor Sloane (1851-1940) who was a scientist, inventor, author, editor, and linguist.

Sources: WPA Photographs, Westport Historical Society, and New York Times.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Thomas Sloane:

Phillip Smith lived in Hartford, Connecticut and worked for the WPA Federal Arts Project from December 5, 1935, to April 15, 1938. Nine of his works were for the Index of American Design. All of his other paintings were allocated to places in Hartford. He painted six panels of a mural on sports for the Pope Park Community Center, three panels on nursery rhymes for the Henry Dwight School, and Dance of theChildren for Southwest School. The dates of Smith’s birth and death are unknown.

Source: WPA Artist’s Work Card.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Phillip Smith:

Yngve Soderberg was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1896. He may have studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. When he came east he studied at the Art Students’ League in New York City on a one year scholarship. He also traveled in Europe to study art for one year. He eventually settled in Mystic, Connecticut and remained there for the rest of his life. Soderberg’s subjects were the figure, human activity, and history; but the majority of his work was of yachting, fishing, and skiing. He painted mainly in watercolor, etched, and made prints. He was a member of the Mystic Art Association, the Chicago Etchers’ Society, and the American Etchers Society. Soderberg won prizes for his etchings and exhibited widely. He was a New Deal artist and painted the mural Canal Era at the Morrisville Post Office in Pennsylvania. He worked for the Connecticut Federal Arts Project from 1940-1941, producing around 58 watercolors. In addition to his art, Soderberg taught art at the New London High School and wrote the instructional book, Drawing Boats and Ships, originally published in 1959. Soderberg died in Mystic, Connecticut in 1972.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; AskART; Who Was Who in American Art [1985], 582; Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters [1987], 875; Hartford Courant: “Art Department Plans School Cafeteria Murals,” February 15, 1953; “Chief Plans No change in Job Test,” February 23, 1964; “Death Took These Prominent State Residents in 1972,” January 1, 1973; New York Times: “Water-Color Show Opens Wednesday,” April 16, 1934; Howard Devree, “A Round of Galleries,” April 22, 1934; Edward Alden Jewell, “Fifty Prints Show Has Opening Today,” May 2, 1934; “Spectator Craft Ready for A Stay,” September 21, 1934; “Nancy S. Horn Has Bridal,” October 7, 1934; Howard Devree, “A Round of Galleries,” “Artists Aid War in Factory Jobs,” February 5, 1943; “Etchers Hold Exhibition,” October 17, 1945; Howard Devree, “Our Prints and Bresdin,” October 21, 1945; “In Brief,” December 24, 1950; “Downhill Skiers Drypoint Etching, Y. E. Soderberg, 1935,” George Glazer Gallery.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Yngve Soderberg:

Jerome Stavola was born in Hartford, Connecticut 1904. Little is known about his family, education, or when his interest in art started. In the fall of 1924 he left Hartford for New York City to study art at the New York School of Design. He also studied at the Norwich Art School. By 1934 he was known for “his portraits and other easel work.” In that year he worked for the Public Works of Art Project completing his first mural in the Weaver High School lunchroom. On November 3, 1934, he opened Jerome Stavola Art Galleries on Allyn Street in Hartford which sold art supplies and exhibited works by local artists, male and female.

The remainder of the 1930’s was a busy time for Stavola. He lectured on murals before the Monday Evening Club of the Immanuel Congregational Church in Hartford. In December 1936 he exhibited paintings by Hartford’s female artists at his gallery. The Hartford Courant for June 18, 1936, published a letter from Stavola praising the “eccentric” New York City artist Louis M. Eilshemius, known as the “Mahatma of Manhattan,” and defending Eilshemius against attacks by theCourant and an interview appearing in the New York Times. On January 22, 1937, he hosted a meeting of the Arts and Crafts Club of Hartford giving “an informal talk on some phases of art.” In 1938 the Hartford Federal College, a prototype of a community college, opened funded by the WPA. Stavola was an art instructor there. In 1939 he was elected a council member for the Association of Connecticut Artists and contributed a painting to an exhibit of the Hartford Independents at the Avery Memorial Museum. In 1940 Stavola served on a committee of the Association of Connecticut Artists for the observance of National Art Week, and in 1941 he served as secretary to the chairman of the National Art Week in Hartford. From 1940-1941 he worked for the WPA Federal Arts Project completing sixteen pieces of easel art.

Stavola was a left leaning political activist who opposed fascism before the war. In 1938 he led four artists from the Hartford Federal College onto the Old State House grounds in Hartford. The artists began painting four large posters condemning the forces of General Franco and supporting the Monarchy in the Spanish Civil War in order to advertise a meeting to be held at the Bushnell Auditorium to raise money for Spanish children orphaned by the war. In the same year Stavola was one of 400 Italian-Americans who met at the Hotel Bond in Hartford to form a committee to draw up a resolution of protest against Mussolini’s anti-Jewish policy. Stavola was appointed to this committee. During the Second World War Stavola worked with other artists at the Pratt-Read Company in Deep River which made gliders. By 1942 he had moved from Hartford to Hadlyme. In 1948 he resigned from the Middlesex County Democratic Association to join the Henry Wallace independent candidacy for the presidency. In a letter, he accused the party bosses of suppressing the liberal voice in the party in favor of “pressure of a reactionary minority.” In 1962 he may have contributed a work of art to auction for funds supporting the campaign of Harvard professor H. Stuart Hughes in a race as an independent candidate for the U. S. Senate opposing Edward M. Kennedy and George Cabot Lodge. Stavola died in December 1984.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; Social Security Death Index;Hartford Courant: “Society Personals,” September 19, 1924; “Hartford Public Buildings Richly and Lastingly Adorned As Uncle Sam Becomes Nation’s Most Lavish Art Patron,” July 1, 1934; “Display Ad 2, November 3, 1934;”Green Is Exhibiting Water Colors Here,” November 24, 1934; “Miss Segal’s Paintings On Exhibit Here,” December 12, 1934; Photo Standalone 24, January 6, 1935; “Former Local Artists’ Exhibition Opens Here,” March 16, 1935; “Great Russian Film “Chpayev” to Be Shown at Club,” April 3, 1935; “Activities of Women’s Clubs,” October 26, 1935; “Does Twain Portrait for Observance,” November 29, 1935; Photo Standalone 30, December 8, 1935; “The Real Eilshemius,” June 18, 1936; “Activities at Women’s Clubs,” January 22, 1937; “Artists Paint Spanish War Scenes at Old State House, Cause Near Riot. Accounts Differ on How It Started,” October 12, 1938; “State Italians Will Protest Mussolini,” October 24, 1938; “New Britain Man Heads State Artists Association,” March 26, 1939; “Annual Exhibition of Paintings Held by Independents,” April 4, 1939; “Two Stores Will Conduct Sales of Art,” November 16, 1941; “Miss Mary A. Dunne,” Photo Standalone 1, November 25, 1940; “Artists of Essex and Ivoryton Leave Easels to Build Gliders,” November 26, 1942, “Stavola of Hadlyme Joins Wallace Party,” February 29, 1948; “Taylor Talks in New Haven on April 3,” March 2, 1948; “Wallace Party Sponsorship Shows Reds,” March 21, 1948; “Third Party Organized at Convention,” April 4, 1948; “Dr. C.A. Levin May Run on Wallace Slate,” June 18, 1948; “Essex Opens Exhibition at Art Gallery,” July 2, 1948; Susan D. Pennybacker and Paul Kershaw, “Hartford Labor Militants Fight the Spanish Civil War,” Hog River Journal, Summer 2004 atwww.hogriver.org/issues/v02n03/militants.htm, “Artists and Writers for Hughes Records: Guide.” Houghton Library, Harvard College Library at www.oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00977.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Jerome Stavola:

Walter Steinhart was a wood carver who worked in the framing department at the Federal Arts Project headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut. He made frames, mats, and screens. His residence was in New Haven.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Federal Arts Project Newsletter (ND).

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Walter Steinhart:

All we know about Eunice Stephenson is that she illustrated children’s books, in 1939 she completed a mural for the WPA Federal Arts Project entitled Nursery Tales at the Julius Stark School in Stamford, and that her husband, James Cochran, died on November 16, 1942.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; “The New Books for Boys and Girls,” New York Times, December 6, 1936; “James Cochran,” New York Times, November 17, 1942.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Eunice Stephenson:

Francis Sullivan joined the WPA Federal Arts Project in 1938 and worked well into 1939. He lived in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a “well known painter and president of the Connecticut League of Art Students in Hartford.”

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Federal Arts Project Newsletter (ND).

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Francis Sullivan: