Anna Mary Robertson (Grandma) Moses 1860 - 1961

Acquired by the present owner before 1973

Otto Kallir, Grandma Moses, New York, 1973, no. 317, pp. 68, 292, illustrated pl. 50, p. 66
Jane Kallir, Grandma Moses: The Artist Behind the Myth, New York, 1982, no. 53, pp. 62-63, 84, illustrated p. 63

Please contact the American Art department for this condition report: (212) 606 7280 or americanart@sothebys.com
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

As a young child growing up on a farm in upstate New York, Anna Mary Robertson Moses, nicknamed “Grandma Moses” in her later years, enjoyed painting on the inexpensive paper her father supplied: “I had to have pictures and the gayer the better, I would draw the picture, then color it with grape juice or berries, anything that was red and pretty in my way of thinking. Once I was given some carpenters red and blue chalk, then I was rich...” (Otto Kallir, ed., Grandma Moses: American Primitive, New York, 1946, pp. 26 – 27. Following her husband’s death in 1927 and with her children grown and having left home, Moses began re-exploring the creative interests of her childhood through paint and needlepoint worsted pictures .  With the assistance of Louis Caldor, a New York art collector who spotted her work at a drugstore, and art dealer Otto Kallir, who would give Moses her first show in 1940, Moses’ distinct style gained increasing popularity and became almost instantly recognizable.   

It was in these years following her rise to fame that Moses began painting larger, more ambitious canvases, one of them being the present Checkered House. Otto Kallir writes that the building after which the canvas is titled is a landmark near Cambridge, New York, which Moses had often seen in her youth. Moses remembered, “The Checkered House is old... It was the Headquarters of General Baum in the revolution war, and afterwards he used it as a Hospital, then it was a stopping place for the stage, where they changed horses every two miles, oh we traveled fast in those days” (Otto Kallir, Grandma Moses, New York, 1973, p. 68).

In Checkered House, Moses depicts a sweeping landscape buzzing with activity. The figures in the foreground appear to be racing to and from their destinations in carriages and on horseback, with the exception of the two soldiers standing to the center right. The checkered house emerges as the main focal point of the picture, inviting viewers into the bustling country scene.  In the background Moses depicts a combination of sweeping mountains, fields and houses, all of which culminate in an expansive depiction of the New York countryside.

A self-taught artist, Moses’ use of depth and perspective in Checkered House allowed her to depict an accomplished country living scene from the unique perspective of her childhood memories. Otto Kallir writes that while Moses painted several versions of Checkered House, she never made an exact copy, putting her individualistic artist touch on each work. “Looking at two variations of the Checkered House, I once asked her how she managed to represent the same motif in a fresh form. She said that she visualized the picture she was about to paint as though framed in her window and that she had only to imagine she was looking out on the scene either from the right or from the left and that accordingly all parts of a composition would shift into place” (Ibid, p. 68).