Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object |
Painting |
Title |
The Old House at the Bend of the Road |
Artist/Creator |
Moses, Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) |
Date |
ca. 1940 |
Description |
Painting, oil on oil cloth, by Anna Mary Robertson ("Grandma") Moses, titled "The Old House at the Bend of the Road." Dirt road in center with man driving buggy with two white horses. White house on right with barn, water and mountain in right background. Cows and trees with autumn foliage in lower right corner. "Ghost" marks from two cows originally decopaged onto painting, but removed by artist before completeion. Dark brown wooden frame with an inner gilded frame. White sticker with number "7" affixed in lower left hand corner of frame. |
Width (inches) |
12.500 |
Height (inches) |
10.750 |
Information |
"The Old House at the Bend of the Road" was included in Moses' first one-woman show at the Galerie St. Etienne, What a Farm Wife Painted, in 1940. It is typical of the artists' early work depicting a generalized rural scene (though one that likely existed and with which Moses was familiar), small format and use of an earthy palette higlighted with stippled patches of colorful flowers, a technique similar to her early yarn pictures. The painting is housed in its original nineteenth-century frame; Moses would find these old frames and create pictures to fit them, noting "You build the pig sty before you get the pigs." Early in her career, before she was supplied with high quality artist materials, Moses used whatever she could get her hands on. In addition to repurposing an old frame, Moses painted this picture on a scrap of oil cloth, a material she would have had easy access to on her farm. Moses originally collaged two cows into the right foreground of this painting- you can still see their "ghosts" if you look carefully. Self-taught artists of all periods have used many different techniques to overcome their lack of traditional drawing skills. One of the most common of these was the use of images from newspapers, magazines, and popular prints as an aid in drawing complex figures or other forms. Moses kept a large archive of images clipped from various sources, that she would often trace and occasionally paste directly onto her work (see her tilt-top table for a rare example of her collage technique). |
Related People |
Moses, Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) |
Credit line |
Gift of Sylvia Partridge |
Copyright owner |
Copyright © Grandma Moses Properties, New York |
Catalog Number |
1995.13 |