SAAM: Grandma Moses: A Good Day's Work (Intro: the Artist's Background)

 Some background on the life of Anna Mary Robertson will be helpful in understanding her choices as an artist.  She was born in 1860 in Greenwich, New York.  Not to be confused with Greenwich Village in New York City, Greenwich is located in Washington County close to the border of Southern Vermont.  In 1860, it was about as far away from the Civil War as one could reasonably get.  It was likely a bucolic haven from the turmoil roiling the nation.

She was born the third of ten children.  At the age of 12, she left home to live with a more prosperous family where she began an adolescence as a house servant.  She participated in various chores in a series of households including cleaning, cooking, sewing, child rearing until she was 27.  That year she formed a relationship with a man who was also working for the same family.  She married Thomas Moses and they moved to Augusta County Virginia where they helped to establish successful farming practices with locals and on their own property during the Reconstruction Era.  In this time she gave birth to 10 children, 5 of whom died in infancy and were buried in Virginia.

In 1905, after many years of hard work and little of substance to show for it, the Moses returned to New York.  Thomas bought a farm in Eagle Bridge.  The farm was located in Renssselaer County just south of where they at first met and near the Massachusetts' border.  This was home.  This was were Thomas Moses, at the age of 67, died of a heart attack in 1927.  Alone as a widow, but surrounded by her children and extended family, she continued to live on Eagle Bridge farmstead with the help of her son, Forrest.  In 1936, at the age of 76, she retired and moved in with one of her daughters. 

In this period she explored ways to focus her time and explore her creative energies.  She had long ago dabbled in painting, and through her youthful employment, learned how to sew, which led her to practice the art of needle point.  She also participated in Quilting Bees.

Around 1936, she returned her creative focus to painting after struggling with needlework due to arthritic pain.  Thus began her productive years as a painter on the road to the fame she eventually acquired.

In 24 prolific years as a serious artist, Mary Anna Robertson-Moses became one of the first Superstars whose fame extended beyond the contemporary Art World at the time to capture the National Imagination.  

The Smithsonian American Art Museum states in an introduction to the exhibition that its goal is to possess the largest collect of Moses' works.

This is the oldest known example of a painting by Grandma Moses.  It's a work executed on a wooden hearth cover which would be used in warm weather to seal the fireplace when not in use.  It was painted in 1918, when she was approximately 58 years old.

An alcove dedicated to the years spent living in Virginia offers a map with text identifying the various locals in which she lived.

L: "Shenandoah Valley South Branch," 1938

R: "Shenandoah Valley (1861 News Of The Battle)," 1938

This pair of paintings were among the only ones depicted memories from the years spent living in Augusta County, Virginia and environs.  It was originally painted as a single work for a benefactor.  When she realized the woman had requested two paintings, she cut it in half and made it into two!