If you are looking for motivation in life, there is no dearth of incredible life changing stories around. But some stories are just beyond the incredible, difficult to fathom, bordering on the incomprehensible, but still amazingly true. I stumbled upon one such true story, where a frail, old, unsung woman defied the odds to emerge triumphant in the face of trying circumstances. This is the story of Anna Mary Robertson Moses, who revelled in her passion for Art and came to be known as Grandma Moses.
A Tough Life
Born in 1860 in Greenwich, New York, Anna Mary Robertson Moses was a hard worker from a very early age. She started working as a live-in Housekeeper when she was just 12 years old and during this tenure of 15 years Anna Mary picked up interest in embroidery. She married at the age of 27 and settled at a small farm with her husband. It was a life like any other, but the always diligent Anna Mary negotiated the rigours of a farm life with aplomb. She continued with her embroidery whenever she got time, and won accolades and encouragement from her family. She had 10 children but only 5 could survive infancy.
A Move to Hoosick Falls
Post her Husband’s death, her son helped her maintain the farm, but then the daily chores were getting too much to handle and Anna Mary retired from the farm and moved to stay with her daughter at Hoosick Falls ( a village in New York State ) in 1936. She had turned 76 by then and chose to spend the final years of her life pursuing her hobby. Embroidery for the infirm, fragile and arthritis stricken hands was too demanding and so on the advice of her sister Anna Mary Robertson began to paint at the age of 78, which completely transformed her life.
Farm Life in Paintings
She kept her paintings simple and uncomplicated, depicting the farm life which she had lived all these years. The paintings were rarely flashy, but as her confidence grew, she started making more intricate and panoramic representation of the life she had lived. When it became impossible to paint from her right hand, she stared painting with her left hand, but continued her new found vocation unabated, encouraged by the appreciation she received. Eventually the locals started buying her paintings and her work could be seen hanging out from stores, shops and homes. The trigger of fame was about to fire and so it happened.
A Grandma Moses Painting
First Solo Exhibition
Louis J Caldor, an art collecter happened to visit Hoosick Falls in 1938 and saw Anna Mary’s painting displayed at a drug store. So impressed was he that a year later, the work of Anna Mary was displayed in New York’s Museum of Modern Art and a year later in 1940 , Anna Mary, painting under the name ‘Mrs Moses’, held her first solo exhibition in New York. The press seeing her age, dubbed her Grandma Moses and the name stuck. Grandma Moses’ paintings were displayed across America and also in Europe as her fame grew far and wide.
A Deluge of Awards & Fame
Several Awards were showered on Grandma Moses as the world stood up and took note of an extraordinary artist, who had defied age and crippling arthritis. At 88 years Mademoiselle Magazine ( a woman’s magazine first published in 1935 in America ) named her the “ Young woman of the Year “. She was awarded two honorary doctoral degrees too by famous Art Colleges and the then President of America, Harry S Truman, awarded her with the Women’s National Press Club Trophy in 1949, for her outstanding contribution to Art.
A Beacon of Inspiration
Grandma Moses continued to grow as an artist with name, fame and money heaped on her. She had become a cultural icon as people flocked to see her paintings, impressed by the unique representation of the life she had lived. Her truthfulness and a candid spread of her insight on the canvas took to peoples hearts. Grandma Moses had soon become a beacon of inspiration for all those who had given up on life and accepted failure. She had proved beyond doubt that ‘ it is never too late ‘. With her sheer hardwork and persistence Grandma Moses had made a big name for herself in the twilight of her life.
Grandma Moses passed away in 1961 aged 101, leaving behind a staggering and overwhelming legacy, to inspire the World no end.
It is never too late to be a ‘ Late Bloomer ‘.
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Featured Image : Grandma Moses At Work
Grandma Moses’ rise to fame is the story of a grand old lady’s achievements with the paint brush late in life. That she did not pen her life experiences but chose to visualise and give expression to them genuinely through her paintings is no mean achievement. And this despite her aging and health infirmities is all the more an incredible feat. It is no surprise therefore that she got due recognition , acclaim and adulation for her work.
Riz Khan has chosen a good personality as a subject to illustrate that it is never too late to dream and achieve the extraordinary.
Perfectly summarised. Really appreciate.