Known for her contributions to Surrealism and Magical Realism, artist Julia Thecla Connell was born in 1896 in Delavan, Illinois. Growing up as the second-youngest among five siblings, she displayed remarkable artistic talent from a young age, winning a county drawing contest when she was only twelve. After completing high school, she briefly attended Illinois State University in the town of Normal, before embarking on her teaching career in a rural schoolhouse. However, Thecla's passion for art led her to Chicago around 1920, where she adopted "Thecla" solely as her professional surname. She pursued intermittent studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, delving into watercolor painting.
Thecla's work, characterized by fantasy imagery and a focus on the female form, quickly garnered attention. She exhibited her paintings extensively, starting with the International Watercolor Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1931. Despite facing financial challenges, she supported herself through various jobs, including industrial artistry and art restoration, which influenced her meticulous attention to detail in her painting. From 1938 to 1942, Thecla contributed to the WPA (Works Progress Administration) Federal Art Project, further enriching her repertoire and gaining valuable experience that expanded the scope of her oeuvre.
Throughout the 1940s, Thecla's work received national recognition, with participation in shows at prestigious venues such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and Peggy Guggenheim's gallery. Despite her growing success, Thecla's reputation waned in the mid-20th century, partly due to the rising popularity of abstraction and the marginalization of women artists. However, in recent years, there has been renewed interest in her work, with exhibitions showcasing her ethereal and imaginative portrayals of dreams and fairy tales. Although she passed away in relative obscurity in 1973, the Illinois State Museum in Springfield and the DePaul University Art Museum in Chicago later arranged retrospectives. Works by Thecla are today held at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago History Museum, and her influence continues to be felt widely.
