Frances and Ruth Jennings in a Field of Flowers, 1909

MABEL E. DICKINSON POND (1869-1960)
Frances and Ruth Jennings in a Field of Flowers, 1909
Oil on canvas on paperboard
7 x 5 inches
Signed at lower right: M. E. Dickinson
Inscribed verso: July 2nd 1909 / Frances Jennings / in blue / Ruth Jennings / in pink


Mabel Dickinson Pond was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on August 14, 1869. Through her extensive diaries, held by the Worcester Historical Museum, we know that she had an early interest in art. She studied at the Boston Art Museum, and later at the Academy of San Diego, San Diego, California.

Pond also taught at the Douglas Seminary in Waterford, Maine, and the Shrewsbury, Worcester, and Holden school systems. Her paintings were exhibited at the Art Museums of Boston, Providence and Worcester.

Although she was primarily a Worcester artist, she did spend twelve years as a resident of Spencer. During this time many of her canvases were of local scenes. Her association with Spencer began in August of 1912, when she received a commission to paint a picture of the farm of Charles F. Pond. Pond's farm, known as Old Homestead farm, was located southeast of Smithville Road on the corner opposite Woodside Road. The following May, when she came to Spencer, she visited with Pond, whose wife had died the previous winter.

Throughout the summer of 1913 they saw more of each other. In September of 1914 they were married and she moved to Spencer where she remained until 1926. A studio was built on the farm, and she continued her career as an artist, primarily as a landscape painter. In December of 1915, she exhibited a number of paintings at the Worcester Art Museum, most of which were studies of Spencer subjects.

Mabel Dickinson Pond's stay in Spencer ended with the death of her husband Charles Pond on November 30, 1925. He died of complications from diabetes and kidney disease. The following year, she sold the farm and moved back to Worcester.

Information courtesy of the Worcester Historical Museum Archives.