Is it possible to become a celebrity in your ninth decade if no one has heard of you before?
Is it possible to become an outstanding artist if you timidly pick up a brush at the age of seventy-six?
Have any of you heard of Grandma Moses, a self-taught American artist? Her life story is an amazing path to art.

One of the most famous artists in America, Grandma Moses, did not go to school, did not graduate from the art academy, she had no teachers. This amazing woman began her life as an ordinary peasant woman.
Anna Mary Moses, née Robertson, was born September 7, 1860 to a farmer's family in New York State. From the age of 12 she worked as a servant for more prosperous neighbors. From these years, the main meaning of her life was to earn a living.
Anna Mary got married quite late in those days - at the age of 27! At that time, girls at that age were already considered hopeless old maids who had lost all chances for at least some family happiness. The chosen one of the future famous artist was Thomas Moses, the same hopeless poor man and hired worker as she was.
It took the Moses couple 18 years to earn money to buy their own small farm in their native places.

It was 1905. Anna is 45 years old, 33 of them - hard work on other people's farms, 10 births, five buried children, ahead - still hard rural work from dawn to dusk, but already on her own farm. Where are the pictures to draw ...
In 1927, Anna turned 67 and became a grandmother. That same year, her husband Thomas died, and their youngest son took over as farm manager. Anna's work has significantly decreased, a lot of free time has appeared, which needed to be occupied with something. Anna began to embroider.
Grandma Moses would have continued to embroider, but arthritis deprived her of this opportunity. On the advice of her daughter, Anna picked up a brush and began to draw ...

According to Grandma Moses, she loved to draw since childhood, but she did not have time for this hobby. Mrs. Moses was going to give her paintings to relatives and friends for the holidays, so as not to spend money on gifts. The plots of her paintings were naive and sweet. Ideal farms, rural household scenes - multi-figured, similar to children's pictures. She especially succeeded in winter and summer landscapes.
So Anna Mary would have remained an unknown peasant woman, if on one gray day in February 1939 (Anna is 78 years old!) The New York engineer Louis Kaldor, who worked in those places and was a well-known art collector, did not accidentally pass by a pharmacy and did not looked at the shop window, behind which hung two framed paintings depicting the local landscape in the style of a primitive. The engineer opened the pharmacy door.
"Whose pictures are on display in your window?" he asked the owner. “Yes, we have one strange granny here. She draws and gives everyone her pictures. So I decided to hang them in the window for a change. "And where does grandma live?" asked Engineer Kaldor.
A few minutes later he entered the house where Anna Mary Robertson-Moses lived. Kaldor introduced himself and asked her to show all the finished work, which is. Grandmother, still not imagining why this visitor needed so many of her pictures, took out all fourteen small-format works from the closet. Since Grandma Moses herself did not know what price to charge for her work, the engineer offered her the money himself. At first she did not understand what he was buying - landscapes painted on wooden planks or her house, but the engineer, overjoyed at the unexpected find, was very generous and paid her more than two hundred dollars for all the paintings.
He wrapped the purchase in a linen towel offered by the hostess, thanked him and was gone. Before leaving, he promised to make Grandma Moses famous, and Mrs. Moses thought he was crazy ...
Luis Kaldor was a very energetic man. He was able to exhibit some of Anne's work at an exhibition in New York called Unknown Contemporary American Painters. Unfortunately, the exhibition was closed, and the New York bohemia showed no interest in the paintings. Most of the art dealers didn't want to work with the young 79-year-old artist, and in vain - dealers get old and die, while Grandma Moses keeps creating!
A year later, Kaldor meets the owner of a new New York gallery, Galerie St. Etienne Otto Callier and in October 1940 the first exhibition of paintings by Grandma Moses, who at that time was 80, opens! Grandma Moses, in her black hat and lace-collared dress, personally greeted the audience.
The exhibition "What the Farmer's Wife Draws" attracted wide attention of collectors.
During the 40s, exhibitions of Grandma Moses' paintings were held in 30 American states, 10 European countries and Japan. In 1941, Anna Mary Moses received the New York State Award, and in 1949, President Harry Truman personally presented her with the National Woman's Press Club Award. Postcards, posters, dishes and fabrics based on the paintings of Mrs. Moses are becoming extremely popular.

In 1960, Grandma Moses celebrated her centenary, her portrait graced the cover of Life magazine, and she herself famously danced with her attending physician during the celebration!
Two years before her death, she agreed to illustrate a children's book - Clement K. Moore's famous poem "The Night Before Christmas" about what people have never really seen - how St. Nicholas the Wonderworker went down a pipe into one of the houses to decompose stockings Christmas gifts. It was a new experience for Grandma Moses. Unfortunately, Grandma Moses did not live to see the publication of the book in 1962, but the book with her illustrations was reprinted for decades.

Grandma Moses left this world in December 1961 at the age of 101, leaving behind over 1,600 paintings. "Rainbow", painted in June 1961, is considered the last completed work of Mrs. Moses.
Gradually, by the beginning of the 21st century, interest in "naive art" in America, and throughout the world, slowly began to fade. They began to forget about Anna Mary Moses herself. Perhaps it really would have been forgotten forever, but the heirs of Otto Callier - the new owners of Galerie St. Etienne - an exhibition of her work was organized. And the painting "The Old Colorful House", painted by Anna Mary and bought from her for $110 in 1942, was sold at an auction in Memphis for $60,000.

Anna will not recognize all this anymore, even during her lifetime she was of little interest that someone made fortunes on her behalf, releasing posters and postcards with her landscapes in millions of copies. She just loved to draw and bring joy to someone with her drawings.
“I look back on my life as a completed day's work, and I'm happy with how it's done. Life is what we make it. It always has been and always will be” (Grandma Moses).

How often do we hear that retirement is a well-deserved rest. "Rest from what? - asked the famous director of the puppet theater Sergei Obraztsov, - From life? Anna Maria Moses, better known as "Grandma Moses", one of the most famous American artists, the largest representative of American primitivism, also thought.

Grandmother Moses, whose paintings today hang in nine museums in the United States as well as in Vienna and Paris, showed her first painting when she was 76 years old and spent the next 25 years painting. She lived for 101 years and gave the world about 1,500 paintings.

• Anna Moses started working at the age of 12.
• At the age of 27, she married and gave birth to 10 children, five of whom died in infancy.
• At 76, she began selling her paintings at the fall fair along with her pickles.
• At 79 years old, Anna Moses' paintings were featured in the Modern Unknown Artists exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
• At the age of 80, she made her first public appearance, presenting her paintings for exhibitions at the Gimbel department store.
• Over the next 20 years, her paintings were featured in international exhibitions, reproduced on Christmas cards, tiles and fabrics in the US and abroad.
• At the age of 93, her portrait graced the December 28, 1953 issue of TIME magazine.
• In 2006, one of her paintings, "Sugaring Off" by Grandma Moses, 1943, sold for $1.2 million.

She took up painting because, due to arthritis, which she was diagnosed with in her seventies, she could no longer embroider. She could no longer hold a needle, but she could hold a brush. Anna Moses had been too busy all her life to allow the thought of sitting idly by.

Biography of the People's Artist of the United States "Granny Moses"

Anna Mary Robertson Moses was born on September 7, 1860 in the family of a simple American farmer Robinson. Anna had 5 brothers and 4 sisters. From an early age, children helped their parents: the boys worked with their father on the farm and the mill, and the girls did housework. The one-room school where Anna received her primary education is now the Bennington Museum in Vermont, which houses the largest collection of her work in the United States. Already in her childhood, Anna loved to draw, using grape juice, ground ocher, grass, flour paste, slaked lime and iron filings for her landscapes.

At the age of 12, she left home and began working for a wealthy family, doing housework and farm duties. One of the families she worked for, noticing her interest in Currier and Ives lithographs, gave her colored wax crayons to color in. She continued to do chores, cook and sew for wealthy families for the next 15 years, and paint in her spare time. More like coloring. We also had such coloring books and are even more popular today.

When she was 27, she married "a hired hand" Thomas Salmon Moses, with whom she worked on the same farm. In 1905, Anna and Robert, at the urging of their husband, moved to a farm in Eagle Bridge (Eagle Bridge), New York, where Thomas got a job managing a horse ranch. With their small savings, the couple rented a small farm and bought a cow.

While the husband worked on the ranch, the wife made potato chips to sell and churned butter. She bought a cow with her savings. They had ten children, five of whom died in infancy. The young wife and mother decorated her house as best she could. In 1918 she painted her fireplace, and beginning in 1932 Anna embroidered pictures for friends and family and sewed patchwork blankets. Contemporary art critics often compare Anna Moses' painting to patchwork.

In 1927, at the age of 67, Thomas Moses died of a heart attack. For some time, Anna was helped to manage the farm by her son Forrest. In 1936, at the age of 76, she left the farm and moved to Bennington to care for her daughter's children after her death. When her brother-in-law remarried, she returned to the Eagle Bridge farm and continued to run the household.

By this time, Anna could no longer embroider pictures and sew patches due to severe joint pain, doctors diagnosed arthritis. Anna could no longer hold the needle in her hands. However, it was unbearable for a person who worked all his life to sit idle. Her sister Celestia reminded Anna of her childhood passion for drawing.

It was easier to hold a brush in your hands than a needle. Anna started painting. She painted nostalgic scenes of American life and sold them at country fairs along with her signature pickles. When her right hand began to hurt, she began to draw with her left hand.

Anna painted the ideal village life from her memories, leaving out modern features. There are no tractors or telegraph poles in her paintings. She called them "old" New England landscapes. The first paintings were exhibited at a local pharmacy for $3-5 per painting.

The situation changed in 1938, when collector Louis J. Kaldor saw her paintings, put up for sale in a local pharmacy, and bought them all. He found out the address of the artist from the pharmacist and bought about a dozen more paintings from her house.

Through the patronage of Louis J. Kaldor, in 1939 the paintings of Anna Moses were featured in the Modern Unknown Artists exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In October 1940, a solo exhibition of her paintings was held in New York in a new gallery - Galerie St. Etienne, and already in November she was invited to present her work in Gimbel's department store.

At the exhibitions in Gimbel's department store on November 15, 1940, she met her admirers for the first time. The exhibition included not only an art exhibition of 50 paintings, but pastries and canned goods from "Grandma Moses", which had already received prizes at the fair in the district. But the third exhibition, organized by the Gimbels department store, brought glory to the artist. The exhibition was a success, and the artist was asked to come to New York to speak at a press conference.

Moses agreed. She once performed at a farmer's fair, presenting her own jams and marmalades, and was not afraid to speak in public. The 80-year-old artist arrived in New York in her invariable black hat and dress with a lace collar - a small, dry, but very energetic old woman with young eyes. The audience was completely fascinated by "Grandma Moses", as the journalists called her.

Another solo exhibition was held at the White Gallery, Washington, DC. In 1944 she was represented by the American British Art Center and Galerie St. Etienne, which increased the sales of her paintings. Over the next 20 years, her paintings were exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. Otto Callier, owner of the Galerie St. Etienne founded Grandma Moses Properties, Inc. for her. followed by solo exhibitions abroad.

Shortly thereafter, Hallmark acquired the rights to reproduce the pictures on greeting cards, and the name "Granny Moses" became known throughout the country.

Her paintings have been reproduced on Christmas cards, tiles and fabrics in the US and abroad. Reproductions of her paintings adorned packages of coffee, lipstick, cigarettes and cameras.

Her art became incredibly popular after 1939, when the Museum of Modern Art proclaimed her a "modern primitivist", introducing her to the emerging American art world. In the 1940s and especially in the 1950s, her primitivism and simple subjects were seen as quintessentially American and as the perfect antidote to post-war modern art that was cold and mysterious.

The artist graced the cover of TIME magazine on December 28, 1953, when she drew a walnut tree during a Christmas interview.

By the early 1950s, TIME estimated her work was featured in over 160 exhibitions, and she had "a single painting, 'Ecole Americaine', hanging in the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris."

At the age of 92, she wrote: “When I was very young, my dad started buying white paper for me and my brothers. He liked it when we drew pictures. Paper cost a penny per sheet and lasted longer than candy." It was her father's approval that fueled her passion for drawing, and this childhood dream could be realized only at a very mature age.

According to art historians, her winter paintings resemble some of Pieter Brueghel the Elder's famous winter paintings, although she has never seen his work.

One of the pictures of the winter series - "Sugaring Off" by Grandma Moses, 1943 - in 2006 was sold for $1.2 million dollars. (Anna Mary (Grandma) Moses Sugaring Off 1943 Naive Art).

Making maple syrup - "Sugaring Off" - was one of Grandma Moses' favorite topics. Like many of her early subjects, it traces back to a popular illustration, in this case the famous Currier & Ives lithograph. Although Moises sometimes copied paintings early in her career, she never attempted to duplicate this Currier & Ives imprint. From the beginning, she freely combined elements from her primary source with vignettes from other sources and from her own imagination. Some of the main elements of the image tend to be repeated in the paintings - "Sugaring Off" is one of them. A burning fire, a cauldron, a mother pouring maple sugar on the snow where it turns into caramel, men with buckets and little 'sugar houses'.

In 1941, Anna Moses received the New York State Prize,

In 1949, US President Harry Truman personally presented her with the National Women's Press Club Award. She was the guest of the President and Mrs. Harry S. Truman in 1949, and at tea the President played the piano for her.

In 1952 her autobiography was published. In 1960, on the centenary of Grandma Moses, her photograph, taken by the famous photojournalist Cornell Capa, was placed on the cover of Life magazine.

A German admirer of the work said: “A carefree optimism comes from her paintings; the world that she shows us is beautiful and good. In all these pictures you feel at home, and you know their meaning.

In honor of her 100th birthday, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller declared September 7, 1960, "Grandma Moses Day." The governor repeated this the following year, when the artist turned 101 years old.

She lived to be 101 years old and gave the world about 1,500 paintings.

Having crossed the age limit of 60 years, many no longer expect any life-changing changes from life and quietly live out their lives. However, history knows many cases when older people achieved tremendous success at a very respectable age. Most often this happened when they took up brushes and paints. So, one of the most popular American artists of the middle of the twentieth century - Grandma Moses, who first painted a picture at the age of 76, by her 100th anniversary had a stunning worldwide fame as a painter and was embroiled in the intrigues of American propaganda.

Grandmother Moses (1860-1961), whose real name is Anna Mary Moses (Anna Mary Moses), nee Robertson, is a famous American amateur artist, one of the most famous representatives of primitivism in the history of US painting. A farmer's wife and mother of 10 children, five of whom died before reaching the age of one, she became famous when she was over eighty.

The story of this amazing woman, who went from poverty to the heights of prosperity and fame, has always captivated and resonated in the hearts of millions of people around the world. The famous grandmother Moses has surpassed all records, becoming unimaginably famous and in demand. For a quarter of a century, the works of Anna Marie conquered not only all of continental America, Europe, but even the land of the rising sun - Japan.

It's no joke - more than 30 expositions held in the States, ten in various countries of the American continent, one on the Japanese islands and that's not counting many European ones. Everywhere, the primitive works of the American artist were warmly received by both viewers and critics. In 1949, the President of the United States - Harry Truman - presented the famous old woman with the National Women's Press Club Award, and on her 100th anniversary, New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller declared September 7 "Grandma Moses Day". Her photographs were printed on the covers of Time and Life magazines, moreover, a crater on Venus is named after this fragile woman. Could a simple woman from a remote village ever dream of this. Well, of course not.

However, the most ordinary viewer was fascinated and amazed not so much by the artist's picturesque works, as by the personality of Grandmother Moses herself, (as the journalists called her), who lived a hard village life for a whole century. The artist died at the age of 101, leaving behind a legacy of 1600 paintings and drawings.

And that's how it all started...

Anna was born in the vicinity of New York State in 1860, in Washington County, which in those early years was a wilderness. In childhood, Anna Mary received an elementary education, learning only to read and write, which, however, was quite natural for the children of the poor of that time. In the future, hard rural hired labor awaited her from dawn to dusk for rich neighbors, to whom she was given into the service of an 11-year-old girl. And when Anna grew up, little changed in her life.

Having married the same hired worker, whose soul did not have a penny, for many years she had to work hard for the masters. And eighteen years passed before she and her husband were able to save money to purchase a piece of land and build their own farm. In 1905, the couple settled on their farm near the small town of Eagle Bridge. And by that time, the Moses couple already had five children.

Anna woke up before dawn, and after milking the cows, she hurried into the field. Her duties also included raising children, cleaning the house, washing, cooking dinners. The whole life of a poor woman was spent in hard work and care for loved ones. Therefore, her body quickly wore out, and she could no longer work physically in old age. In 1927, Anna's husband, Thomas Moses, died suddenly, and the younger son took over the business of the farm. And the mother, no longer able to manage the farm, became interested in embroidery. But soon this work became unbearable for her: excruciating joint pains deprived the woman of this occupation.

At the age of 76, a woman, on the advice of her daughter, decided to take up brushes and paints.
She generously gave her first works to relatives and friends of her fellow villagers. Thus, several works ended up on the walls of a local pharmacy. They were spotted by a passing engineer who collected paintings. He liked the primitive but very cute creations of the novice artist, and he bought several pictures from Grandma Moses for mere pennies. It happened in 1938. As it turned out later, this was her first step towards fame and popularity.

And it should be noted that the decision to take up painting was very opportune: the end of the 30s in the United States was precisely the time when interest in self-taught artists "from the outback" reached its apogee. Their works were willingly exhibited in exhibition halls, and private galleries, as well as the Museum of Modern Art.

The appearance of an original artist in the firmament of American art caused a real sensation - the public literally fell in love with this "a thin, small, very simple and charming old woman with lively eyes, dressed in a simple black dress and a battered Victorian hat."

Over the next year, the drawings of Anna Moses, at the suggestion of the engineer Louis Kaldor, were successfully exhibited in one of the New York galleries and attracted considerable attention from collectors and art lovers.

In the second half of the 1940s, expositions of primitive works by Grandma Moses were sold out in many European countries, including Japan. In 1952, at the suggestion of the President of the country, her autobiography was published. And in 1960, on the centenary of the notorious grandmother, her photograph, taken by the famous photographer Cornell Capa, was placed on the cover of Life magazine.

The painting of Grandma Moses, dedicated to rural landscapes and everyday scenes from the life of peasants, is very reminiscent of children's drawings. The artist gave preference to winter views, she painted summer ones less often. And curiously, one of the first creations of Moses, sold by her to a passing collector for $10 in 1942, in 2004 increased in price at art auctions to 60 thousand dollars.

One critic commented on the work and popularity of Anne Marie Moses: "The attraction of her paintings is that they depict the lifestyle that Americans love to believe exists, but which no longer exists. Her rural pastorals, scenes from the life of American farmers are charming and certainly deserve a place in art history. Although she herself in itself, naive painting has never been very popular anywhere.

Grandma Moses "at the forefront" of American propaganda

After ending in 1945, World War II smoothly turned into a cold war of ideologies. The United States, more than ever, needed its own art as an element of propaganda. And Grandma Moses was forced to be "on the front line." Her work has become the centerpiece of the US Information Service's traveling exhibitions in war-torn Europe.

Sincerely and sincerely accepted by the European audience, the paintings of Anna Moses caused a considerable resonance in America itself. "Europeans like to think that Grandma Moses represents American art. They praise our naivety and honesty, but deny us the opportunity for full-fledged, sophisticated artistic expression. Grandma Moses is exactly what they expect from us, that they are willing to allow us", - wrote indignant New York Times journalists in their articles in 1950, defending the interests of American professional artists.

And since the masters of painting for too long considered themselves undeservedly relegated to the background, the struggle with the primitivist painters broke out in earnest, and in the end was crowned with the victory of professionals. So, by the end of the 40s, the interest of the American art market in "naive art" had dried up almost completely. Only grandmother Moses remained the last "fortress", and even then, until critics wrote off her popularity "on the base tastes of the public and political games."

Around the name of the artist, for some time, "the spears of criticism were broken", and soon they completely cared about the legendary grandmother. And she continued to live quietly on her farm and still paint her primitive paintings, and she was not at all disturbed by the fact that huge money was made in her name, since the artist’s work during the peak of her popularity was replicated in millions of copies in the form of postcards, stamps, posters. It was enough for Grandma Moses to know that her work brought joy to at least someone, and she cared little for the opinion of art critics.

And finally, in order to objectively assess the degree of popularity and fame of Anna Moses as an artist in American art in the middle of the last century, I would like to note that at one time the genius of self-PR Andy Warhol never even dreamed of such attention and reverence from the public. And Grandma Moses, without much effort, became the most famous American artist of the twentieth century.

In continuation of the theme of primitivism in painting, the paintings of which were fascinated by Marc Chagall himself.

I want to congratulate you on all winter holidays! I hope you are OK.

Today I made a thematic "winter" selection of paintings by Grandma Moses.

I love her work.

Grandma Moses, Catching the Turkey, 1940-1950.

Wintertime, 1940-1950

Anna Maria Robertson was born on September 7, 1860 in Greenwich, New York. She was the third of ten children. When the girl was 12 years old, she was given into the service of a neighboring family of a wealthy farmer. Cooking, sewing and housework were Anna's main duties.

Anna Maria Robertson at age 15

At 27, she married a hired worker, Thomas Moses. The year 1887 stood in the yard - the Reconstruction of the South. The opportunity arose for Thomas to become a farm tenant in Virginia. A few hours after the wedding, a couple of newlyweds were sitting on a train rushing south. Mrs. Moses fell in love with the Shenandoah Valley, but Thomas missed the North.

Anna Maria gave birth to ten children, five of whom died in infancy.
Times were hard, the family worked tirelessly. To strengthen the family's fortunes, Mrs. Moses sold her own butter and chips.

Bringing in the Yule Log, 1949

Lots Of Fun, 1950-1961

Going to Grandma's, 1944

For 18 years of hard work, the family managed to save some money, and in 1905 Thomas persuaded his wife to return to the North. They bought their own farm in Eagle Bridge, which they named Mount Nebo.

According to Deuteronomy, it was from this mountain that the Lord showed Moses* the Promised Land.
*Moses (English) - Moses

In 1927, Thomas Moses died of a heart attack. Five years later, Grandma Moses moves to Benington, Vermont, to help her daughter Anna, who has tuberculosis. Mrs. Moses was not used to sitting idle, it was on the advice of Anna that she took up embroidery, but severe arthritis soon got in the way - it was too difficult to manage the needle and thread. And at the age of just over seventy, Grandma Moses makes a historic decision to take up painting.

Early Springtime on the Farm, 1945

Home, 1940-1950

Sugaring Off 1943

After the death of her daughter, Mrs. Moses returns to the Mount Nevo farm, where she lives with her son Hugh's family. The beginning artist was 75 years old at that time. Her paintings are exhibited at country fairs and local charity events, but so far only Grandma Moses' famous jams have won prizes.

In 1938, a significant event occurs - New York collector Louis Kaldor notices one of the paintings of Mrs. Moses in the window of a pharmacy in the town of Husick Falls. He buys a lot of her works and promises to glorify the artist, the family of Mrs. Moses sincerely considers him crazy.

Hoosick Falls, New York, in Winter, 1944

1940-1950

Winter, 1940-1950

The very next year, three paintings by Grandma Moses were selected for the Unknown Contemporary Artists of America exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Most art dealers don't want to work with "an aspiring 79-year-old artist." They are in vain - dealers grow old and die, and Grandma Moses creates everything!
In 1940, paintings by Mrs. Moses appear in the New York gallery of Saint - Etienne. The artist also went out into the world, in her black hat and dress with a lace collar, she captivated everyone - the demanding public and the capricious press. The legend is born!

Sugaring Off 1955

A Blizzard, 1956

Joy Ride 1953

Exhibitions of paintings by Grandma Moses are held in 30 US states, ten countries in Europe and even in Japan. In 1941, Mrs. Moses was awarded the New York State Prize; in 1949, US President Harry Truman personally presented Grandmother Moses with the National American Women's Press Club Award in Washington. The following year, a documentary about her is released, which is nominated for an Academy Award. In 1952, the artist's autobiography was published. 1953 - Appears on the cover of Time. Posters, reproductions, postcards, dishes and fabrics based on paintings are extremely popular.

1960, Grandma Moses is celebrating her 100th birthday (hey, art dealer skeptics!), her picture is on the cover of Life magazine, and she is dancing a jig (yes, yes) with her doctor.

Good Fun 1957

Stone Boat, 1940-1950

We Love To Skate, 1940-1950

The following year, Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, proclaims September 7 (the artist's birthday) as Grandma Moses Day. A couple of months later, on December 13, 1961, Anna Maria Moses left this world.

A Frosty Day, 1940-1950

But her paintings remain with us, today I made a thematic "winter" selection, I hope that after a while I will make another one.

As Grandma Moses said - Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. We create our own life, it has always been so, it will always be so.

“But dinner was over, the tablecloth was removed from the table, swept in the fireplace, kindled a fire. They tried the contents of the jug and recognized it as excellent. Apples and oranges appeared on the table, and a full scoop of chestnuts was poured on the coals. a circle,” as Bob Cratchit put it, probably meaning a semicircle.” Bob's right hand was lined up with the entire collection of the family's crystal: two glasses and a mug with a chipped handle.
These vessels, however, could hold hot liquids no worse than any golden cups, and when Bob filled them from a jug, his face shone, and the chestnuts hissed and burst with a cheerful crack on the fire. Then Bob declared:
- Merry Christmas, my friends! And God bless us all!"

Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol"

Waiting for Christmas, 1950

Christmas at Home, 1950-1960.

So Long Till Next Year! 1960

A mature woman owns the world [How to be happy in the world of men] Galina Markovna Lifshits

Grandma Moses

Grandma Moses

This is the name of the famous American artist, one of the main representatives of American pictorial primitivism. Her story is amazing. Anna Mary Moses was born September 7, 1860 and died December 13, 1961. That is, she lived 101 years and 3 months.

She loved to draw as a child, but she married a farmer. She worked hard and hard. She gave birth to five children. She did not have the opportunity to draw, and she had to forget about her hobby. She compensated for her craving for creativity with embroidery, but closer to 70, Anna began to suffer from arthritis, so she had to leave embroidery.

In 1927, when Anna Moses was 67, her husband died. After his death, she returned to her childhood dream and took up painting.

Eleven years have passed. She is already 78. (I tell this story with constant delight and amazement. Here is an example !!! But listen further!) A New York collector noticed a drawing of Anna in the window of a pharmacy in the small provincial town of Hoosick Falls. Over the next year, her drawings, thanks to their appearance in the New York gallery Saint-Étienne, attracted the general attention of both collectors and art lovers. Exhibitions of her drawings were held in many European cities and in Japan.

In 1941, Anna received the New York State Prize. In 1949, US President Harry Truman personally presented her with the National Women's Press Club Award.

In 1952, Anna Moses' autobiography was published.

Please note: by this time she was only 92 years old! After that, she lived another 9 years.

In 1960, on the centenary of Grandma Moses, her portrait, taken by the famous photojournalist Cornell Capa, was placed on the cover of the magazine life.

She is a star!

Here is an amazing life lesson that perfectly illustrates what I wrote about above.

After all, Anna Moses was destined to start a career as an artist and win world fame at the age of 70! And that was just the beginning. Fame came after eighty.

Can we call her seventy years of old age? What about eighty? And ninety? She became old after a hundred. In the last year of his long and glorious life. She honestly lived it, worked, raised children and cherished in her heart her dream that someday, when she gave up the debts of her life (and marriage and raising children is a serious duty), someday she would do what she loved.

Anna Moses took up painting not for money, not for fame. It was her calling, because all her life she remembered her childhood love. And the result was just brilliant! I think this is one of the most wonderful role models. But, fortunately, he is not the only one.

This text is an introductory piece.