Editing Grandma Moses (section)

==Art career==

What appeared to be an interest in painting at a late age was actually a manifestation of a childhood dream. With no time in her difficult farm life to pursue painting, she was obliged to set aside her passion to paint. At age 92 she wrote, "I was quite small, my father would get me and my brothers white paper by the sheet. He liked to see us draw pictures, it was a penny a sheet and lasted longer than candy."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Moses|first1=Grandma|title=People Weekly|year=1998|publisher=Time, Inc. Home Entertainment|location=New York, NY|page=120|edition=Special Collectors}}</ref>

===Style===
[[File:1918 fireboard byGrandmaMoses.png|thumb|[[Fireboard]] decorated by Moses in 1918]]
Moses painted scenes of rural life<ref name="Stein"/> from earlier days, which she called "old-timey" New England landscapes. Moses said that she would "get an inspiration and start painting; then I'll forget everything, everything except how things used to be and how to paint it so people will know how we used to live."<ref name="NYT obit" />  From her works of art, she omitted features of modern life, such as tractors and telephone poles.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/grandma-moses-anna-mary-robertson-moses#sthash.7WYQ4MYA.dpuf|title=Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses) 1860–1961|publisher=National Museum of Women in the Arts|access-date=August 30, 2014}}</ref>

Her early style is less individual and more realistic or primitive, with a lack of knowledge of, or perhaps rejection of, [[Perspective (graphical)|basic perspective]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/26/nyregion/art-the-varied-tradtion-of-grandma-moses.html |title=''ART; The Varied Tradition<!--sic--> of Grandma Moses'' |first=William |last=Zimmer | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=July 26, 1998 | access-date=May 4, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Scribner">{{cite book| title = Dictionary of American Biography| last = American Council of Learned Societies| year = 1959| publisher = Scribner| isbn = 978-0-684-16794-7| page = [https://archive.org/details/isbn_0684167948/page/557 557]| url-access = registration| url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_0684167948/page/557}}</ref> Initially she created simple compositions or copied existing images. As her career advanced, she created complicated, panoramic compositions of rural life.<ref name="Met p. 390" />

She was a prolific painter, generating more than 1,500 canvasses in three decades.<ref name="Met p. 390">{{cite book|author1=Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)|author2=Doreen Bolger|author3=Doreen Bolger Burke|title=American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A catalogue of works by artists born between 1846 and 1864. Vol. 3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=73XrWkYDA-sC&pg=PA390|year=1980|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|isbn=978-0-87099-244-5|page=390}}</ref> She initially charged $3 to $5 for a painting, depending upon its size, and as her fame increased her works were sold for $8,000 to $10,000.<ref name="NYT obit" /> Her winter paintings are reminiscent of some of the known winter paintings of [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]], although she had never seen his work.<ref>{{cite book|author=Karal Ann Marling|title=Designs on the Heart: The Homemade Art of Grandma Moses|url=https://archive.org/details/designsonheartho0000marl|url-access=registration|year=2006|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02226-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/designsonheartho0000marl/page/102 102]}}</ref> A German fan said, "There emanates from her paintings a light-hearted optimism; the world she shows us is beautiful and it is good. You feel at home in all these pictures, and you know their meaning. The unrest and the neurotic insecurity of the present day make us inclined to enjoy the simple and affirmative outlook of Grandma Moses."<ref name="NYT obit" />

===Initial exhibitions===
During a visit to [[Hoosick Falls, New York|Hoosick Falls]] in 1938, Louis J. Caldor, an art collector who worked as an engineer in the state of New York, saw paintings made by Moses in the window of a drug store. He bought their supply and ten more from her Eagle Bridge house for $3 or $5 each. The next year, three Grandma Moses paintings were included in New York's [[Museum of Modern Art]] exhibition titled "Contemporary Unknown American Painters". Her first solo exhibition, "[[What a Farmwife Painted, 1940|What a Farm Wife Painted]]", opened in New York in October 1940 at [[Otto Kallir]]'s [[Galerie St. Etienne]].<ref name=GSE /><ref name="Stein"/> A meet-and-greet with the artist and an exhibition of 50 paintings at Gimbel's Department Store was held next on November 15. Her art displays included samples of her baked goods and preserves that won Moses prizes at the county fair. Her third solo show in as many months was held at the Whyte Gallery, Washington, D.C.<ref name="Stein"/> In 1944, she was represented by the American British Art Center and the Galerie St. Etienne, which increased her sales. Her paintings were exhibited throughout Europe and the United States over the next 20 years.<ref name=GSE /> Otto Kallir established the Grandma Moses Properties, Inc. for her.<ref name="Cheyney p. 110" />

The paintings of Grandma Moses were used to publicize American holidays, including [[Thanksgiving]], [[Christmas]], and [[Mother's Day (United States)|Mother's Day]].<ref name="Early" /> A Mother's Day feature in ''True Confessions'' (1947) written by Eleanor Early noted how "Grandma Moses remains prouder of her preserves than of her paintings, and proudest of all of her four children, eleven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren."<ref name="Early">{{cite magazine | first=Eleanor | last=Early | title=Just a Mother | magazine=True Confessions | date=May 1947 | page=47 }}</ref> During the 1950s, her exhibitions broke attendance records around the world. Art historian Judith Stein noted: "A cultural icon, the spry, productive nonagenarian was continually cited as an inspiration for housewives, widows and retirees."<ref name="Stein"/> Her paintings were reproduced on Hallmark greeting cards, tiles, fabrics,<ref name=GSE /> and ceramics. They were also used to market products, like coffee, lipstick, cigarettes, and cameras.<ref name="Stein"/>

===Acclaim===
[[File:Grandma Moses NYWTS.jpg|thumb|right|1953 photo of Moses “donating her painting "Battle of Bennington" to Mrs. George Kuhner who accepts it for [[Daughters of the American Revolution|DAR]].”]]
In 1950, the National Press Club cited her as one of the five most newsworthy women and the National Association of House Dress Manufacturers honored her as their 1951 Woman of the Year. When she reached 88, ''[[Mademoiselle (magazine)|Mademoiselle]]'' magazine named her a "Young Woman of the Year".<ref name="Stein"/> She was awarded two honorary doctoral degrees. The first was bestowed in 1949 from [[Russell Sage College]] and the second two years later from the [[Moore College of Art and Design]].<ref name="NYT obit" />

President [[Harry S. Truman]] presented her with the [[National Press Club (United States)|Women's National Press Club trophy]] Award for outstanding accomplishment in art in 1949. [[Jerome Hill]]  directed the 1950 documentary of her life, which was nominated for an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]]. In 1952, she published her autobiography, ''My Life's History''.<ref name=GSE /> In it she said "I look back on my life like a good day's work, it was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and contented, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."<ref name="NYT obit" /> In 1955, she appeared as a guest on ''[[See It Now]]'', a television program hosted by [[Edward R. Murrow]].<ref name=GSE />