Anne Poor


Anne Poor was a painter best known for her work as a combat artist in World War II and for her landscape paintings.

Early life and education

Anne Poor was born January 4, 1918, to Bessie Breuer. Her step-father was Henry Varnum Poor. She was educated at the Art Students League of New York, where she studied with Alexander Brook, William Zorach, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. She attended Bennington College and spent a year in Paris through Bennington's study abroad program in 1937, drawing at the Academie Julian and Ecole Fernand Leger. While in France, she worked with Jean Lurcat and met literary figures Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell.

Career

Anne Poor began her career painting murals with her stepfather. She assisted with his murals in Washington, D.C., on the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Interior buildings and was a model for characters depicted in the mural. She was awarded a Works Progress Administration mural commission in 1940. She painted murals on post offices in Gleason, Tennessee, and Depew, New York. In 1943, she enlisted in the Women's Army Corps, through which she joined the War Artists Unit and was stationed in the Pacific. She was the only woman artist/war correspondent in the United States Armed Forces during World War II. Anne's work was displayed in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American-British Art Center during the 1940s. Anne was an instructor at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture from 1947-1961. She also became the director and a member of the board of trustees.

Art

Poor painted murals on canvas and frescos during her time with Public Works Administration. While working as a war correspondent, her drawings included helicopters and transport planes and portray the horrors of war, as well as a sense of adventure and, at times, compassion. Works from this time include Restraining Psychotic at Holding Station, Guam; Blood Transfusion; Dying Boy and Walking Wounded. Later, she became a landscape painter.

Publications