Early Skating
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Anna Mary Robertson Moses—better known as Grandma Moses—began painting in her late seventies, after decades of working on a farm. Early Skating is one of more than 1,500 of her paintings that depict the seasonal activities and landscape of her rural community in upstate New York. As is characteristic of the artist’s distinctive style, the action is concentrated in the lower half of the composition, and the figures are described in flat, reductive shapes with minimal details.
Caption
Anna Mary Robertson Moses American, 1860–1961. Early Skating, 1951. Oil and tempera on Masonite, 17 15/16 x 24 in. (45.6 x 61 cm) Frame: 26 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (67.3 x 82.6 x 6.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Estate of R. Thornton Wilson, 83.122.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 83.122.2_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Early Skating
Date
1951
Medium
Oil and tempera on Masonite
Classification
Dimensions
17 15/16 x 24 in. (45.6 x 61 cm) Frame: 26 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (67.3 x 82.6 x 6.4 cm)
Signatures
Signed bottom center: "MOSES."
Inscriptions
Inscribed verso, upper center, on paper label: "Sept 21, 1951, / 1493, / Early Skating"
Credit Line
Gift of the Estate of R. Thornton Wilson
Accession Number
83.122.2
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
What about this one? Is this the original frame?
And what are these men carrying?!It may be a sled, if I had to guess. Though the artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses located this work in her hometown of Greenwich, New York, she did not paint this from observation like the Francis Guy scene. Interestingly, Moses did not start painting until relatively late in her life at age 78, when arthritis rendered her unable to embroider, friends suggested she try painting these scenes instead. Moses worked with whatever materials were at hand, using house paint and leftover canvas or fireboard for her first paintings. Moses was entirely self trained.The frame is likely of the period but our records do not indicate if it is original.Thanks!
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