A self-taught Chester County artist Ida Ella Jones completed more than 300 works during her painting career that began when she was 72, writes Beverly Sheppard for Pennsylvania Heritage. 

Dubbed by some “the Grandma Moses of Chester County,” Jones started painting in 1947 and did not stop until her death in 1959 at the age of 85. In her works, she combined an eye for telling detail with a sense of humor. Her body of work presents a powerful personal narrative and a rare chronicle of life in rural Chester County during the first half of the last century. 

Her works belong to a uniquely American art category often called folk, primitive, or naive. 

Born in 1874, Ida Ella Ruth moved to Ercildoun with her parents Samuel and Louisa Pin Ruth, who were both formerly enslaved, when she was a child. She remained there for the majority of her life. Her father was a preacher, which helped influence Ruth’s deep spirituality that is evident in some of her paintings, including The Parable of the Ten Virgins. 

Her work has often been exhibited posthumously, including by Chester County History Center. 

Read more about Ida Ella Jones in Pennsylvania Heritage.