What a Farmwife Painted, 1940

Last updated • 1 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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

Moses’ first exhibition had taken place the previous year with three paintings in the exhibition "Contemporary Unknown American Painters", at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1939. [1] The interest generated there led to these three paintings The First Automobile, Home, and In the Maple Sugar Days being included in her first solo exhibition "What a Farmwife Painted" at the Galerie St. Etienne. It was organized by Louis J. Caldor and Otto Kallir and was a success, although Kallir felt the exhibition "included many of her early attempts in which her great talent was scarcely recognizable." [2]

The list of 35 paintings included were referenced with numbers 1-34, taken from an old exhibition handout, in his 1976 catalogue raisonné by Otto Kallir:

title1940 exhibition nr.1973 Kallir nr.latest date paintedcollection / owner
Down in the Glen1231940Louis J. Caldor
Where the Muddy Missouri Rolls2471940Louis J. Caldor
A Winter Sleigh Ride3741940Louis J. Caldor
Farm Along the River4211940Louis J. Caldor
Village in Winter5711940Louis J. Caldor
The Covered Wagon6171940Louis J. Caldor
Back Yard at Home771940Louis J. Caldor
Starry Eyes (painted on tin)8531940
All Dressed Up for Sunday931940Louis J. Caldor
The Guardian Angel10291940Louis J. Caldor
Hills of New England11481940Mrs. Ian McDonald
Bridge12101940Louis J. Caldor
The Burning of Troy13621939Louis J. Caldor
Home from the Honeymoon14351940Louis J. Caldor
Bringing in the Hay15301940Louis J. Caldor
The Old House at the Bend in the Road16401940Louis J. Caldor; Bennington Museum (1995.13) [3]
A Fire in the Woods17221940Louis J. Caldor
Sugar House among the Trees18551940Harold L. Downey
Bringing in the Maple Sugar19421939 Otto Kallir
Shenandoah Valley, South Branch20511938Louis J. Caldor
Home21311939Louis J. Caldor
In the Maple Sugar Days22431939Louis J. Caldor; Mr. & Mrs. Henry Matalene Jr.
The First Automobile2361939Louis J. Caldor
Shenandoah Valley (1861 News of the Battle)24521938Louis J. Caldor
Cambridge in the Valley25111940Louis J. Caldor
Turkey in the Straw26631940Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kelly Vodrey
On the Road to Greenwich (two sided painting)27A261940Louis J. Caldor
The Waterfalls (other side of two sided painting)27B721940Louis J. Caldor
Home for Thanksgiving28341940Louis J. Caldor
The Old Churchyard on Sunday Morning29151940Louis J. Caldor
Apple Pickers3051940Louis J. Caldor
At the Old Well31731940Louis J. Caldor
The Village by the Brookside32701940Louis J. Caldor
September Hills33501940
Mt. Nebo on the Hill (embroidery)3434W1940Louis J. Caldor

Related Research Articles

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

Media related to Grandma Moses at Wikimedia Commons

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Kallir</span> Austrian-American historian and author (1894–1978)

Otto Kallir was an Austrian-American art historian, author, publisher, and gallerist. He was awarded the Silbernes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um das Land Wien in 1968.

Hildegard Bachert was a German-born American art dealer and gallery director. Born in Mannheim, Germany in 1921, Bachert moved to America in 1936 to seek refuge from the Nazi regime. In 1940, she began working at the Galerie St. Etienne, a Manhattan gallery specializing in Austrian and German expressionist art, where she worked until her death.


The Departure is a 1951 oil painting by the American outsider painter Grandma Moses, produced at age 91 and signed "Moses". It is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, whose collections it entered in 2009.

<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.

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.

<i>Great Fire (The Burning of Troy in 1862)</i> 1959 painting by Grandma Moses

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.

My Hills of Home is a 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 Memorial Art Gallery since 1953.

<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 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. Master Checklist for "Contemporary Unknown American Painters", MOMA, 1939
  2. What a Farmwife Painted discussed by Otto Kallir in Grandma Moses American Primitive, 1947
  3. The Old House at the Bend in the Road on the Bennington Museum website