SAAM: Grandma Moses: A Good Day's Work (parting shots)

 I will close this series of reviews with a couple of odds and ends after thoughts.  

One, what did it mean to live for over a century between 1860 and 1961?  She died on December 13, 1962.  I was all of 319 DAYS old!  What if I somehow lived to 2062?  It's incomprehensible.  All the things that she saw.  Some of them are also captured in her paintings and I want to toss two of them in here.

Two, who were all those little people?  Were they just "manikins" plopped into a moment in time like some child's diorama project for school?  Or were they real people?  It's easy to think of them as anonymous characters.  By and large, Moses didn't give them detailed specific qualities--she was not a portraitist.  But still, there are many that hold some aspect of gesture or placement or attire that make you want to ask--who was this?  I'll share two examples.

Three and finally, I share a painting that just delighted the child in me so much.  And then when I connected the dots, it was even more meaningful.  "So Long Til Next Year" is one of her many Christmas themed paintings.  It is based in part on the ubiquitous "T'was The Night Before Christmas" (originally titled "A Visit From St. Nicholas") by Clement-Clarke Moore (1779 - 1863).  Moses painted this work in December of 1960.  She missed the mark by 12 days.  Yet, she clearly set her sights on another Christmas.  How magical.

"The First Automobile"

1939 (or earlier)

"Balloon"

1957

"Cambridge Valley"

1942

"Cambridge Valley" detail.  Who are these young women?  Standing at the left corner observing the landscape spreading out before them?  The clothing would suggest that it isn't Mary Anna Robertson herself, but surely she knew who they were intended to be?  You can imagine as I have, two friends at a fence row watch the sheep below and sharing confidences.  

"A Beautiful World"

1948

We swap genders in this painting and are drawn toward a strapping young man in the foreground.  Unencumbered by any human intercourse, he stands with a bold confidence that seems to scream out, "Hey, look at me!"  His form is uncharacteristically sensual exhibiting the pure strength and confidence of youthful vigor.  And he's a ginger!  That alone would suggest that he is not an anonymous figure filling in some archetypal space, but a person she once knew.  And like the young ladies in the previous painting, now, in a way, so do we.

"So Long Til Next Year"

1960