Frances Foy was an American painter, muralist, illustrator, and etcher born in Chicago, Illinois.
Education
Foy began studying art with Wellington J. Reynolds at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and later attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she continued studying with Reynolds as well as with George Bellows and Fred Schook. Foy completed commercial work and began to exhibit her work in many venues in the 1920s, including Chicago Number-Jury Society of Artists, Chicago Woman"s Aid, the Romany Club, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Career
She and other classmates were active in Chicago"s progressive movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Foy receive commissions for murals through the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts, of the United States Treasury Department. Executed between 1934 and 1943, the murals were intended to boost the morale of the American people from the effects of the Depression by depicting uplifting subjects the people knew and loved. were commissioned through competitions open to all artists in the United States.
Almost 850 artists were commissioned to paint 1371 murals, most of which were installed in post offices, libraries, and other public buildings.
Among the artists, 162 were women. The murals were funded as a part of the cost of the construction with 1% of the cost set aside for artistic enhancements.
Beginning with The Letter for the East Alton, Illinois post office in 1936 and Hiawatha Returning with Minnehaha in Gibson City, Illinois in 1937, Foy painted several post office murals under the auspices of the United States. Treasury Department’s New Deal relief programs. In 1938 she was commissioned to the Chestnut Street Postal Station in Chicago, Illinois and painted the oil on canvas Advent of the Pioneers, 1851 which is still on display at Chicago"s Main post office.
Foreign the post office in Dunkirk, Indiana Foy painted Preparations for Autumn Festival, Dunkirk in 1941.
In 1943, Foy painted two murals in the West Allis, Wisconsin post office, Wisconsin Wild Flowers – Spring and Wisconsin Wild Flowers – Autumn. The artist"s papers are preserved along with Gustaf Dalstrom’s in the collection of the Archives of American Artist
Membership
She was a member of the Chicago Society of Artists and served on the technical committee of the Federal Public Works of Art Project.