by J. C.

Grandma Moses

(1860-1961)

Anna Mary "Grandma" Robertson Moses was one of the United States most influential "primitive" painters. This title means that she was not trained in art, and her style is what some would call "true" art. Though she did not begin painting until she reached the age of 78, she spent the next 23 years devoted to art--at the time of her death she was 101 years old. Using oil, she painted many scenes of her life on the farm.

Background

Grandma Moses was born Anna Mary Robertson on September 7th 1860, on a farm in Washington county, New York to Mr. and Mrs. Russell King Robertson. She was one of ten children, the third in line with two older brothers, then four sisters and two brothers underneath her in age. She was named after her mother's sisters, Mary and Anna, but was called Sissy until she was about six years old because her father did not like how she was named. Growing up, she has many memories of playing on her farm and being closest to her younger brother Arthur. Her first memories with art are from the paper that her father brought home for her. Her and her brothers would draw pictures, in which she would create images "the gayer the better" and "then color it with grape juice or berries" (Moses, My Life's History 26). As a child, she attended the school at Eagle Bridge. It was, according to Moses, "considered the best district school around…" (My Life's History 40). In 1872, Anna Mary began to work as a hired girl on neighboring farms.

On November 9th, 1887, Anna Mary left her home to move south to Hoosick Falls and get married to Thomas Salmon Moses. She spent the years from 1887 to 1905 living in Virginia, assuming the role of the farmer's wife-taking care of the house and children, feeding and watering the chickens, and making butter for extra money. They started out living on what was called the Bell Farm, but through time they had rented and owned many more. She gave birth to 10 children, five of which died in infancy. Winona, Forrest, Lloyd, Anna and Hugh were mostly grown by 1927, when Thomas Moses died. Just a few weeks before his unexpected death, Grandma Moses remembers starting to paint more often. She painted "for pleasure, to keep busy and to pass the time away," but "thought of it no more than of doing fancy work"(Moses, My Life's History 129).

Grandma Moses had some of her first paintings exhibited at Thomas' drug store where they caught the attention of a man named Louis Caldor, who had come from New York and was just passing through town. He bought many of them, and asked the owner of the store who did them and where he could find more. They told him that it was an old woman by the name of Anna Mary Moses, and then informed her that Mr. Caldor would be by to see some more. When He and Anna Mary met, he asked her to paint more, bought them and brought them to New York to be displayed in galleries. Some ended up in the Museum of Modern Art. Her first one-man show featuring her paintings was called "What a farm wife painted." It occurred in the year 1939 in the Galerie St. Etienne, New York. From there, her paintings were featured in many exhibitions and galleries of primitive art.

Grandma Moses died at the age of 101 years old, on December 13th, 1961 in Hoosick Falls, New York.

Technique

Grandma Moses was not trained in art during any part of her life. What she painted came naturally, usually from her memories of her life on the farm. Each of her paintings started with a frame and a masonite board. She then covered the board with linseed oil and three layers of flat white paint, which covered the darkness of the board, gave it body and made it so that you cold use a lot less paint. Then it was ready for whatever image she had in mind. In her works, she used oil paints , and even sometimes would use glitter to create a sparkle in the snow. She always painted things that were "pleasing and cheerful," because she liked bright colors and activity in her paintings. She studied outdoors pretty often, in an attempt to match the natural shades of things like trees or a certain patch of grass. Though she studied outdoors, she always did her painting indoors on her tip-up table that she used as an easel.

Famous Works

Grandma Moses created over 1,600 works, but here are some of the most famous ones:

• Black Horses,1942
• Out For Christmas Trees, 1946
• Halloween, 1955
• Farming Country, 1960
• Grandma Moses Going To Big City, ,1946
• Hoosick Valley, 1946
• Horse Shoeing,1952

Where Can You Find Moses' Art?

Grandma Moses' works are in many different galleries, museums and private collections around the world. Here is a list of some of these, as taken from Kallir's The Art and Life of Grandma Moses (46).

• The White House, Washington, D.C.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minn.
• William Rockhill Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, Mo.
• Pasadena Art Museum, California
• Rochester Memorial Gallery, Kansas City, Mo.
• Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
• Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, New York
• The Phillips Gallery, Washington, D.C.
• Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama
• Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
• Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
• Art Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, California
• Art Institute Zanesville, Ohio
• Bennington Museum, Vermont
• Atlanta Art Association, Atlanta, Georgia
• Shelburne Museum, Vermont
• Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
• Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria
• National Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
• Queensland National Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
• Oxford University, Great Britain
• Pushkin Museum, Moscow, U.S.S.R