It’s never too late to start.
Anna Mary Robertson Moses – dubbed “Grandma Moses” by the press – began painting in earnest at the age of 78.
Ten years later, when she turned 88, she was named “Young Woman of the Year” by Mademoiselle magazine. Her popular paintings of peasant life and rural landscapes made her a household name.
“Her life before painting was extremely humble,” said Robin Starr, director of American and European artworks at Bonhams Skinner auction houses, which will sell two paintings by Grandma Moses to the highest bidder on September 21.
“She was on the cover of Time and Life magazines,” Starr said. “Edward R. Murrow interviewed her, for goodness sake.”
Moses was born in Greenwich, NY in 1860 and grew up in a farming family with eight siblings. At the age of 12 she began working for wealthy neighbors doing farm work, cooking and sewing. One of these neighbors noticed her interest in her artwork and bought her rudimentary painting supplies.
life on the farm
She met her husband, Thomas Salmon Moses, who was a clerk at a farm where she worked, and the two moved to Staunton, Virginia, where they continued to work on local farms. The couple had 10 children, only five of whom survived infancy. Thomas Moses died of a heart attack in 1927 and his wife never remarried. Grandma Moses was 101 years old.
“She was a farm woman on a farm,” Starr said. “She has been cleaning for the women on the farm and in the house for most of her life from the age of 12. And so she was very aware of what had to happen at what time of the year and when to sow and harvest.”
Moses is particularly known for paintings depicting winter.
“She was very observant of the seasons and the changes that come with each season,” Starr said. “But the winter scenes, while sometimes involving farm work, very often involve aspects of celebration, and they tend to show the very cheerful, happy side of winter, not the rough side. People love them and they are charming.”
Charming enough that Hallmark bought the rights to some of her pieces for Christmas card images in the mid-1940s, Starr said. “Your pieces have been reproduced everywhere.”
“I think the other thing that made her plays so appealing was her timing. She really started painting seriously when she was in her seventies, God love her, in her seventies. She was getting a little old for heavy work and that was a way to keep herself active.”
And, Starr said, to paraphrase the artist, “to stay out of trouble.”
Teaches himself to paint
Moses’ rise to fame at the end of the Great Depression and the start of World War II was no accident, Starr suggested.
“After difficult times, many people find solace in remembering the positive aspects of the past.”
“She wasn’t a painter who would march into the country to necessarily see these scenes firsthand. But she’d had them in her head for so long… and she knew what those things looked like.”
The other magic Grandma Moses possessed was authenticity, Starr said.
“Her subject matter was accessible to many people, and her life story was charming. As a child and as a young woman, she liked to draw and stuff. But suddenly, in her 70s, she’s really teaching herself to paint. How charming is that?”
The auction
Grandma Moses’ paintings have gained worldwide appeal and have sold for as much as $1.2 million.
Her painting May, Making Soap, Washing Sheep, 1870, estimated to be worth between $70,000 and $90,000, offers a snapshot of farm life—sheep being scrubbed in a pond, a dog barking, children collecting eggs, quarreling Geese and a crested woman making some soap in a boiling cauldron.
The second painting to be auctioned is Beyond the Lake, estimated to be worth between $50,000 and $70,000, and depicts a serene view from an elevated perspective depicting a serpentine lake set against rolling hills.
The two paintings are owned by the Miss Porters School, a college preparatory school founded in Farmington, Connecticut in 1843, whose proceeds help the school advance its mission to raise women to be informed, brave, resourceful, and ethical citizens of the world.
The live auction on September 21 at 10 am at accompanied by an online auction for prints, multiples and photographs running September 12-22.
“People can be in the room, they can be on the phone, they can bid on our website,” or they can bid, Starr explained. “So, lots of options to offer.”
Learn more here.