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Anna Mary Robertson Moses, known as Grandma Moses, took up painting in her late seventies after arthritis made embroidery too painful. She had her first solo show in New York at 80 and kept painting into her 101st year, becoming one of America's best-loved folk artists.

Grandma Moses

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The story behind the card

Born in 1860 in upstate New York, Moses spent most of her life as a farm wife, raising children and making embroidery and other decorative work at home. When arthritis made needlework painful, her sister suggested painting instead. In 1938 the collector Louis Caldor saw her pictures in a drugstore window in Hoosick Falls, New York, bought them, supplied her with materials and promoted her work. Her first solo exhibition, “What a Farm Wife Painted”, opened at the Galerie St. Etienne in New York in October 1940. She went on to paint more than 1,500 canvases of farm life and the changing seasons, mostly from memory. She died in 1961, and in 1969 the US Post Office issued a stamp showing her painting “July Fourth”, which is in the White House collection.

Türkçe oku
Grandma Moses adıyla tanınan Anna Mary Robertson Moses, artrit nakış işlemeyi acı verici hâle getirince yetmişlerinin sonunda resim yapmaya başladı. 80 yaşında New York'ta ilk kişisel sergisini açtı, 101 yaşına kadar resim yapmayı sürdürdü ve Amerika'nın en sevilen halk ressamlarından biri oldu.

1860'ta New York eyaletinin kuzeyinde doğan Moses, hayatının büyük bölümünü bir çiftçi karısı olarak geçirdi; çocuk büyüttü, evde nakış ve başka süs işleri yaptı. Artrit iğne işini acı verici hâle getirince kız kardeşi ona resim yapmasını önerdi. 1938'de koleksiyoncu Louis Caldor, New York eyaletindeki Hoosick Falls kasabasında bir eczanenin vitrininde onun resimlerini gördü; resimleri satın aldı, ona malzeme sağladı ve çalışmalarını tanıttı. İlk kişisel sergisi “What a Farm Wife Painted” (Bir Çiftçi Karısının Resimleri) Ekim 1940'ta New York'taki Galerie St. Etienne'de açıldı. Çiftlik hayatını ve değişen mevsimleri çoğunlukla belleğinden resmettiği 1.500'den fazla tablo yaptı. 1961'de öldü; 1969'da ABD Posta İdaresi, Beyaz Saray koleksiyonundaki “July Fourth” (Dört Temmuz) adlı tablosunu gösteren bir pul çıkardı.

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