Grandma Moses Goes to the Big City

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Grandma Moses Goes to the Big City
Artist Grandma Moses
Year1946
Medium Oil paint, canvas
Dimensions36 in (91 cm) × 48 in (120 cm)
Location Smithsonian American Art Museum
Owner Jane Kallir   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Accession No.2016.51  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Grandma Moses Goes to the Big City is a 1946 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 86 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum since 2016. [1]

It shows the artist's impression of her home in Eagle Bridge, New York, with herself as the central figure with family and friends while an automobile awaits. The other figures are working various tasks around the farm, emphasizing that she is leaving a going concern. It was painted after her works began to be shown all over the country. After she had refused to attend her first show in 1940 she began to attend a few of the events within a day's trip from her home. She had made a trip to Madison Square Garden in New York City the previous year to see her works on show at the Women's International Exposition in November 1945. [2]

The painting is one of very few large 36 x 48 inch works on canvas, which came about because her friend Ala Story sent her larger prepared canvases and boards that she could not hold in her characteristic way, but painted them spread on her bed. [3]

This painting was one of forty selected for her to tell her story in her own words in the book Grandma Moses American Primitive : "This was a request for Grandma Moses to go to the Big City, New York. Grandma, who had never traveled much, what anticipation, and vexation, what commotion and confusion, at last she is on her way." [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grandma Moses</span> American painter (1860–1961)

Anna Mary Robertson Moses, or Grandma Moses, was an American folk artist. She began painting in earnest at the age of 78 and is a prominent example of a newly successful art career at an advanced age. Moses gained popularity during the 1950s, having been featured on a cover of Time Magazine in 1953. She was a subject of numerous television programs and of a 1950 Oscar-nominated biographical documentary. Her autobiography, titled My Life's History, was published in 1952. She was also awarded two honorary doctoral degrees.

Nan Phelps, was an American folk artist from London, Kentucky. Phelps’ work has often been compared to that of the more famous Grandma Moses in both style and subject matter.

Jane Kallir is an American art dealer, curator and author. She is co-director of the Galerie St. Etienne in New York, which specializes in Austrian and German Expressionism as well as self-taught and “outsider” art. In 2020, the gallery ceased commercial operations and became an art advisory. Its archives and library were transferred to the Kallir Research Institute, a foundation established in 2017. Kallir serves as President of the KRI. She has curated exhibitions for many American and international museums and is the author of the catalogue raisonné of Egon Schiele’s work in all mediums.

Galerie St. Etienne is a New York art gallery specializing in Austrian and German Expressionism, established in Vienna in 1939 by Otto Kallir. In 1923, Kallir founded the Neue Galerie in Vienna. Forced to leave Austria after the 1938 Nazi invasion, Kallir established his gallery in Paris as the Galerie St. Etienne, named after the Neue Galerie's location near Vienna's Cathedral of St. Stephen. In 1939, Kallir and his family left France for the United States, moving the Galerie St. Etienne to New York City. The gallery still exists, run by Otto Kallir's granddaughter Jane at 24 West 57th Street.

The Old Oaken Bucket, The Last is a 1947 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 86 and signed "Moses". It was sold at Sotheby's in 2006 for US$598,400.

Country Fair is a 1950 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 89 and signed "Moses". It was sold at Sotheby's in 2009 for US$1,082,500.

<i>Checkered House</i> (Grandma Moses) 1943 painting by Grandma Moses

Checkered House is a 1943 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 83 and signed "Moses". It was sold at Sotheby's in 2016.

Thanksgiving Turkey is a 1943 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 83 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1950.

Hoosick Falls in Winter is a 1944 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 84 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of The Phillips Collection since 1949.

Wash Day is a 1945 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 85 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum since 1946.

The Battle of Bennington is a 1953 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 93 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the Bennington Museum since 2014.

Black Horses, or Lower Cambridge Valley is a 1942 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 82 and signed "Moses". It was in the collection of Otto Kallir in 1975.

White Christmas is a 1954 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 94 and signed "Moses". It was in the collection of Irving Berlin.

What a Farmwife Painted was the first solo exhibition of works by Grandma Moses at the Galerie St. Etienne in October 1940.

<i>Grandma Moses record book</i> Record book for tracking paintings

The Grandma Moses record book is a small book given in 1941 to Grandma Moses by her brother Fred E. Robertson for keeping track of the titles of paintings she made. According to Otto Kallir in 1975, "The book is bound in black boards; it measures 7 1/2 by 10 inches and bears the word "Record" in gold lettering on the cover. The pages are numbered from 1 to 152."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grandma Moses American Primitive</span> 1946 art catalog by Grandma Moses and Otto Kallir

Grandma Moses American Primitive was the first popular catalog of works by Grandma Moses by Otto Kallir, published in 1946.

The McDonnell Farm is a 1943 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 83 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of The Phillips Collection since 1944.

The Old Covered Bridge is a circa 1941 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 81 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum since 1957.

The Old Checkered House, 1853 is a 1946 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 86 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art since 1952.

Sugaring Off is a 1943 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 83 and signed "Moses". It is in the collection of the Galerie St. Etienne.

References

  1. Painting record for 2016.51, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Kallir Family in memory of Otto Kallir
  2. Grandma Anna Mary Robertson Moses, born in 1860 in Eaglebridge news photo taken 14 november 1945 by the New York Daily News
  3. discussion of her painting technique with the larger ones, in Grandma Moses, the artist behind the myth, by Jane Kallir, 1982
  4. Grandma Goes to the City, Grandma Moses with Otto Kallir, Grandma Moses, American primitive - forty paintings with comments by Grandma Moses, together with her life's history, 1946