From Farm Fields to Fame: The Timeless Vision of Anna Mary Robertson Moses. Anna Mary Robertson 1860-1961 The director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Jane Carpenter Rock, teamed up with seven scholars and thirty lenders to produce an... The post Sharon Lorenzo reviews “Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum appeared first on Sharp Eye.
From Farm Fields to Fame: The Timeless Vision of Anna Mary Robertson Moses.
Anna Mary Robertson 1860-1961
The director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Jane Carpenter Rock, teamed up with seven scholars and thirty lenders to produce an epic exhibition of the work of the late artist, Anna Mary Robertson, known to most as Grandma Moses. Born in 1860 on a simple farm in Washington County, New York to Margaret and Russell Robertson, the brilliant catalog published by Princeton University Press tells us that her home was lit by whale oil lamps with just a horse and buggy outside. At age 12, after attending a one room schoolhouse with children from ages 5 to 20, she went to work for another family where she met Thomas Salmon Moses whom she eventually married. They had ten children and five of them died in early childhood. Thomas and Anna raised their family on a horse farm in Eagle Bridge, New York which they named Mount Nebo, in honor of the biblical Moses who went to Nebo in Jordan near the Red Sea just before his death and passage to the promised land.
Mount Nebo, embroidered wool, 1940.
Leslie Umberger, the Smithsonian folk art curator, noted in her catalog essay that Grandma Moses was a self-taught artist, and her art was a respite from her family and multiple farming duties. Philadelphia Museum of Art curator, Kathy Foster, added that Grandma Moses was part of the art culture that loved to paint outdoors and embrace many views from the farmyard to the mountain tops. In this work, she shares her view of people on her farm making apple butter which they sold to amplify their income.
Apple Butter Making, 1947, oil on fiberboard.
In 1938, Grandma Moses had a small show of her work at a local drugstore near her farm, and a neighbor bought them all! The very next year, the Museum of Modern Art put three of her works in a show on emerging American artists, much to her total amazement. She then met Otto Kallir and his granddaughter Jane, who offered her a solo show in their New York City gallery, Galerie St. Etienne on West 57th street. For someone from a simple life on a farm, needless to say this was a very big deal! Otto said he loved her work because it was a symbol of American directness, and that she made art that reflected her constant state of gratitude for the simple beautiful world she lived in.
Shortly thereafter in 1949 she was asked to the White House by President Truman who awarded her the Women’s National Press Club prize, and she gave one of her works to the White House.
President Truman and Grandma Moses, 1949.
Another highlight of her later years was meeting President Dwight Eisenhower who also liked to paint in his spare time. He sent her a card after she presented him with a painting of his farm which said, “For a real artist from a rank amateur.” The New York Times wrote a story saying she was a poster child for living well in old age, producing agrarian symbols of self-sufficiency. Life Magazine then put her on the cover of its issue in May of 1960.
The Eisenhower Farm, 1956, Oil on pressed wood. Dwight Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas.
Cover of Life Magazine, May,1960.
One of my favorite images from this lovely catalog is Grandma Moses’ last picture before her death at 101 in 1961. As one of her 1500 known works of art, it features a rainbow above a scene of a working farm. She wrote a brief history of her life and said, “I look back on my life like a good day’s work which I had done, and I feel satisfied with it.” In 1969, the U.S. Post Office issued a stamp in her honor with an image of one of her paintings, The Fourth of July, that she had given to the Eisenhower White House. I love the idea that she found solace, remembrance, and calm in her observations of nature. Some critics called her work modern primitivism. I prefer what the artist Charles Sheeler said of her work, “She made propaganda for the idyllic American life.”
The Rainbow, 1961. Oil on fiberboard. Promised gift to the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.
July 4, 1951. Oil on fiberboard. The White House Art Collection.
Official U.S. Postage Stamp, 1969. Six cents with the image of her work, The Fourth of July, 1951.
In conclusion, this show is a gem and will travel next to the Crystal Bridges Museum, thanks to its founder, Alice Walton, in Arkansas. The catalog highlights with clear illustrations more than thirty of Grandma’s works on loan with media images and artistic quotations included. Admission to both of these museums is free for all .
Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work
The Smithsonian American Art Museum
Washington, D.C.
Oct. 24, 2025- July 12, 2026
and
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Bentonville, Arkansas
Sept. 12, 2026- March 29, 2027
Source consulted:
Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., Princeton University Press, 2025.
The post Sharon Lorenzo reviews “Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum appeared first on Sharp Eye.
