Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) Moses

(American, 1860-1961)

Untitled (House and Road), c. 1940

oil on canvasboard

signed Moses (lower left)

7 1/4 x 10 7/8 in.

The present work will be included in the forthcoming digital update of the Grandma Moses catalogue raisonné, under reference number 1614.

Provenance:

The Galerie St. Etienne, New York, New York.

Private Collection, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Chicago, Sale of May 20, 2015, Lot 214.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Private Collection, Illinois.

Lot Note:

Anna Robertson Moses spent most of her life in rural settings, first in the Shenandoah Valley, and after 1905, in Eagle Bridge, New York, before devoting her time to painting at the age of 78. The hills, farms, and hamlets of Upstate New York vastly informed the quaint landscapes and village scenes for which she is widely celebrated.

House and Road exudes nostalgia, evoking a seemingly immutable way of life, akin to a time capsule. The enchanting landscape, at once fanciful and rooted in real memories, depicts an inviting cottage adjoined by a colorful and fertile garden, and wilderness beyond. Nestled between the garden and a cliff is a lake, whose deep blue hues reverberate all the way to the ever-rolling mountains in the distance. The image as a whole is replete with quiet, charm, and a sense of spatial and temporal infinity, as if the receding world so dear to the artist were forever preserved.

Untitled (House and Road), c. 1940