Grandma Moses

Happy Birthday Grandma Moses!! (Anna Mary Robertson Moses) Born in 1860, Grandma Moses was a well-known Folk Artist. She had no formal training in art. Her husband was a farmer and she spent her adult years raising 5 children and helping on their farm. It is said that she painted her first painting when she ran out of wallpaper in her dining room, so put up a large sheet of white paper and painted a scene on it! She began to paint in earnest at the age of 76 when her hands became arthritic and made her embroidery difficult. Most of her work was on cardboard and she painted from memory her life experiences. She was inspired by Currier and Ives prints. Grandma Moses was quite prolific, creating over 3600 paintings. She lived to be 101. The painting below, a favorite, is entitled Over the River to Grandma’s House on Thanksgiving Day.