Carla Occaso
A Vermont woman painted one of the few portraits of a female legislator that hangs in the Statehouse in Montpelier. Ruth Mould, who lived from 1894 through 1979, and worked for a time with the Montpelier School District, was a painter and portraitist. Mould painted Edna Beard to commemorate Beard’s accomplishments of winning a seat in the House of Representatives in 1921 (the year a woman’s right to vote was ratified in Vermont), followed by winning a seat in the Senate in 1923. That portrait still hangs in the Statehouse.
Mould also painted three Vermont Supreme Court justices, a bobby soxer, a nursing mother, herself, and many others. And, she painted landscapes and still lifes. As a child in Morrisville, Mould began studying art under local artist Lilian Fish before attending the Art Institute of St. Paul, Minnesota and the Art Students League in New York City, according to an article by Heather K. Michon in Vermont Woman. Mould then taught art in Johnson and Montpelier. She also had the honor of being chosen to display her art at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
Over the years she lived in Barre, Williamstown, and Monkton, Vermont, and Elizabethtown and Keysville, New York with her husband, Willis Mould. In fact, several articles about Mould’s life bring attention to how her husband made sure she had an art studio in each of their homes, so she could paint and teach wherever they went.
Mould also published a book on painting furniture in 1953. Her artwork can be seen in the lobby of the Dibden Center for the Arts at Johnson State College (now called the Johnson Campus of the Vermont State University), the Fleming Museum of Art in Burlington, and at the Bennington Museum (as well as in the Vermont Statehouse and the Supreme Court building).
The arts are still alive and well in Vermont, with new art installations being unveiled this summer in Montpelier and Barre.
