Grandma Moses was an American folk artist born in 1860.
Grandma Moses at a glance
- Born: 1860, as Anna Mary Robertson
- Died: 1961
- Nationality: American
- Known for: Cheerful scenes of country life in upstate New York
- Style: American folk art, self-taught
- Started painting: In her seventies, in the late 1930s
- Notable works: Hoosick Falls in Winter (1944)
“She would make changes, be it season or time of day, making each painting unique unto itself.”
Grandma Moses did not begin painting until the 1930s, when she was in her seventies and widowed, and she is part of an American folk tradition that stretches back to Edward Hicks in the mid-nineteenth century.
Grandma Moses’s interest in painting grew from her embroidered yarn pictures, as well as imagery taken from popular prints and illustrations, yet she always relied strongly on direct observation of life in the countryside near the Moses family farm.
Grandma Moses painted the landscape she knew and loved in upper New York State near the Vermont border, where the Hoosick River winds through a panoramic valley and the Green Mountain Range lies in the distance.
Grandma Moses painted “Hoosick Falls in Winter” in 1944, a theme she had painted before, and each time she revisited it, she would make changes, be it season or time of day, making each painting unique unto itself.
- Born Anna Mary Robertson in 1860.
- Began painting in her seventies.
- Known for landscapes of upstate New York.
- Her work is part of American folk art tradition.
- Painted “Hoosick Falls in Winter” in 1944.
While her technical ability to portray people and buildings was sometimes lacking because she was a self-taught painter, Grandma Moses’s landscapes are painted with poetic grace, stemming from her immense fondness of where she lived.
Grandma Moses masterfully painted the subtle grays and whites of cold, frosty days, dotting the landscape with bits of color to enliven the scene, and though her art could be termed “naïve” for its lack of technical skill, Grandma Moses imbues her canvases with the love she has for her subject matter.