Elizabeth became exhausted from her career efforts, the strain in the relationship with her sister Margaret, and family financial losses. Sparhawk-Jones struggled with depression, like her father, and when she was not well she burned her paintings, which reduced the number of works available for sale. In 1913, Sparhawk-Jones had a mental breakdown and lived in the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane for three years. The experience was hard on her and she was forever changed. Sparhawk-Jones was terrified and lonely at the asylum, and may have been subject to opium or sedative drugs. She moved in with her mother after she was released from the hospital in 1916. Sparhawk-Jones dealt with the losses of her teacher William Merritt Chase, who died in 1916, and Morton Shamburg, who died in 1918. She said that she did not work as an artist for about 12 years. Sparhawk-Jones appreciated the company of writers over other artists, and enjoyed the periods when she lived at artist retreats, like MacDowell Colony and Yaddo, which had resident writers, musicians, and artists. Edwin Arlington Robinson (1868–1935), a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, and Sparhawk-Jones visited the MacDowell Colony at the same times over a cumulative total of ten years. They had a romantic relationship in which she was in love with him, devoted to him, understood him, and did not press for a more intimate relationship. He called her Sparhawk and was courteous towards her. They had a relationship that D. H. Tracy described as "courtly, quiet, and intense." When he died, Sparhawk-Jones attended his vigil and then painted several paintings in his memory. She described him as a charming, sensitive, and emotionally grounded man with high moral values. Sparhawk-Jones was a friend of Nancy Cox-McCormack, with whom she corresponded between 1935 and 1956, Marsden Hartley, and Hudson Walker (of the Hudson Walker Gallery). Sparhawk-Jones was known for her humor and wit, but confided in a 1964 oral history interview that she always felt lonely, preferring a quiet lifestyle. Sparhawk-Jones lived part of her adult life in and around Philadelphia, including the rural Westtown, Pennsylvania. She visited Paris often for up to six months at a time, returning to spend time with her family. In the mid-1950s, she moved to Paris and lived there at least through the mid-1960s.