Born one year before the start of the civil war in 1860, Anna Mary Robertson Moses had a deep appreciation for life’s small joys.
Known by her nickname, Grandma Moses, she began painting in 1938 at the age of 78. Her work is classified as “folk art.” Descriptive adjectives for her work have included naïve, primitive, and the dreaded and often demeaning phrase “self-taught painter.”
The art of Grandma Moses focused on subject matter that she was very familiar with. She painted pleasant things that reminded folks of kinder, gentler times. Her paintings focused on the wonder and beauty of nature. Drudgery and hardship are subject matters that she chose not to focus on. This is particularly interesting considering she painted during the tail end of the great depression and WWII.
Grandma Moses was of the opinion that painters should NOT take lessons because all that teaches one to do is to paint in the style of the teacher.
Interesting facts about Grandma Moses
- She became “Young Woman of the Year” at the age of 88
- Her early paintings were sold for as little as $3
- She was friends with Norman Rockwell
Moses challenged the mindset of the art intelligentsia. She exposed the world to a different style of art and elevated the role of the “self-taught” style of art. She was greatly respected during the latter decades of the twentieth century, and her art laid the foundation for other artists.
On Dec. 13, 1961, the artist known as “Grandma Moses” died at the age of 101. Born in 1860, Anna Mary Robertson Moses had no formal training in art, but she left the world more than 1,600 paintings to admire. Charles Osgood reports.
Today her work hangs at the White House, and in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.