Anna Mary Robertson Moses, aka Grandma Moses, is an American primitive artist whose paintings convey a strong pastoral sentimentality. In all her paintings, the subjects are the people of her town, Hoosic Falls, NY, whose activities she celebrates.
The Family Picnic represents a range of picnickers from young to old. Children seesaw, a woman pours drinks on a tree stump, food cooks over a fire. In the background, cows graze behind a white fence. The fields and low rising hills fill the sky, which is blue with only a hint of clouds. Church Picnic (1954) is the record of an annual event at Mrs. Moses’s local church.
Anna Mary Robertson [Grandma Moses]. July Fourth (1951). Issued 1969.
Featured Image: Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses. The Family Picnic (1951), tempera on masonite.