The McDonnell Farm | |
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McDonell Farm | |
Artist | Grandma Moses |
Year | 1943 |
Medium | Oil paint, hardboard |
Subject | Old MacDonald Had a Farm |
Location | The Phillips Collection |
Accession No. | 1393 |
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. [1]
It shows the artist's impression of the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", with the central white farmhouse on a hill overlooking the various barns that house the animals and farmhands working the fields. To the right is a haystack with children playing.
This painting was one of forty selected for her to tell her story in her own words in the book Grandma Moses American Primitive : "Away back in 1840, the farms were large, and they had many hired men, to till the land, as they raised all of their food, such as wheat, corn, oats, rhy [sic] and buckwheat and lots of lifestock [sic], horses, cows, sheep, this called for woork [sic]. From thhe sheep, they spun the wool for yarn, to be woven in cloth for Blankets and Cloathing [sic]. They did ther [sic] own weaveing [sic]. Thir [sic] sweets was obtained from the bees and the maple trees, in the spring of the year. The Geese, turkeys, ducks, and hens, were the womens care, there was allwise [sic] a plenty of food, but no idle hands. It could well be called McDonell Farm, with a yuck-yuck here, ba-ba there, and a cluck-cluck everywhere...." [2]
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.
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.
July Fourth is a 1951 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 91 and signed "Moses". It is now in the White House, whose collections it entered in 1952.
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.
A Fire in the Woods is a 1947 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 87 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the National Gallery of Art since 1999.
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.
Wagon Repair Shop is a 1960 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 100 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the Bennington Museum since 2003.
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 1986.
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.
Great Fire is a 1959 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 99 and signed "Moses". It has been in the collection of the Bennington Museum since 2024.
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.
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.
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."
Grandma Moses American Primitive was the first popular catalog of works by Grandma Moses by Otto Kallir, published in 1946.
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.