Grandma Moses
Anna Mary Robertson Moses
(1860 –1961)
PAINTER
“GRANDMA” MOSES
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Born in Greenwich, NY Sept. 7,
1860; 1 of 10 children of farmers
Marries farmer Thomas Moses in
1887; they have 10 children, 5
survive
They move to Eagle Bridge, New
York, where she lives the rest of
her long life
She embroiders scenes in yarn
until arthritis causes her to quit
and take up painting at age 76
“Life is what we make it, always
has been, always will be”
“I paint from the top down. From the
sky, then the mountains, then the hills
then the houses, then the cattle and
then the people.”
 Starts by painting scenes
from books or Currier &
Ives prints
 An art collector sees her
work in a drugstore
window: immediate
success
 Paints happy, “life in the
country” images on
cardboard
 Paints from memory,
backgrounds first, then
adds people
 Some of her work is used on Hallmark
cards
 Prolific artist: 3600 canvasses in 30
years
 Before she is famous, sells work for
$2-3 per painting
Sugaring Off (1943)
Depicts making maple candy in winter
Sold in 2006 for $1.2 million
Catching the Thanksgiving Turkey
(1943)
GRANDMA MOSES
primitivist
 In her paintings there is no
despair, unhappiness or aging
 On her 100th birthday in 1960,
NY Gov. Nelson Rockefeller
proclaims “Grandma Moses
Day”
 Lives near/friends with Norman
Rockwell
 Died Dec. 13, 1961 at Age 101
“If I didn’t start painting, I would
have raised chickens.”