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:
title | 1940 exhibition nr. | 1973 Kallir nr. | latest date painted | collection / owner |
---|---|---|---|---|
Down in the Glen | 1 | 23 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Where the Muddy Missouri Rolls | 2 | 47 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
A Winter Sleigh Ride | 3 | 74 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Farm Along the River | 4 | 21 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Village in Winter | 5 | 71 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
The Covered Wagon | 6 | 17 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Back Yard at Home | 7 | 7 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Starry Eyes (painted on tin) | 8 | 53 | 1940 | |
All Dressed Up for Sunday | 9 | 3 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
The Guardian Angel | 10 | 29 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Hills of New England | 11 | 48 | 1940 | Mrs. Ian McDonald |
Bridge | 12 | 10 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
The Burning of Troy | 13 | 62 | 1939 | Louis J. Caldor |
Home from the Honeymoon | 14 | 35 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Bringing in the Hay | 15 | 30 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
The Old House at the Bend in the Road | 16 | 40 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor; Bennington Museum (1995.13) [3] |
A Fire in the Woods | 17 | 22 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Sugar House among the Trees | 18 | 55 | 1940 | Harold L. Downey |
Bringing in the Maple Sugar | 19 | 42 | 1939 | Otto Kallir |
Shenandoah Valley, South Branch | 20 | 51 | 1938 | Louis J. Caldor |
Home | 21 | 31 | 1939 | Louis J. Caldor |
In the Maple Sugar Days | 22 | 43 | 1939 | Louis J. Caldor; Mr. & Mrs. Henry Matalene Jr. |
The First Automobile | 23 | 6 | 1939 | Louis J. Caldor |
Shenandoah Valley (1861 News of the Battle) | 24 | 52 | 1938 | Louis J. Caldor |
Cambridge in the Valley | 25 | 11 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Turkey in the Straw | 26 | 63 | 1940 | Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kelly Vodrey |
On the Road to Greenwich (two sided painting) | 27A | 26 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
The Waterfalls (other side of two sided painting) | 27B | 72 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Home for Thanksgiving | 28 | 34 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
The Old Churchyard on Sunday Morning | 29 | 15 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
Apple Pickers | 30 | 5 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
At the Old Well | 31 | 73 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
The Village by the Brookside | 32 | 70 | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
September Hills | 33 | 50 | 1940 | |
Mt. Nebo on the Hill (embroidery) | 34 | 34W | 1940 | Louis J. Caldor |
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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
The Old Oaken Bucket 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 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden since 1974.
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.
Grandma Moses American Primitive was the first popular catalog of works by Grandma Moses by Otto Kallir, published in 1946.