Discovery: Grandma Moses

I liked Grandma Moses, but now I love her. It's all because of a self-portrait/caricature I spotted in a vitrine at the end of the Bennington Museum's exhibit. I was captivated by the expression of joyous energy in her pose.

I wish I’d spent more time studying and sketching it, but I fully expected to be able to Google up the image. Apparently drawn casually in a letter sent to a friend, it shows Grandma Moses celebrating her wrinkles—including the little v’s above and below her smiling lips—while energetically and even sensually attacking the canvas.

My monoprint is based on her drawing.

Googling “Grandma Moses’ self-portrait” and “Grandma Moses caricature” yielded only images of the prim, proper old woman the public embraced—a persona this jubilant self-portrait contradicts big time.