Grandma Moses Smithsonian Exhibit: ‘A Good Day’s Work’ Review

The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is one of my favorites for its wonderful collection, majestic building, consistently beautiful presentation, and, more often than not, exhibitions that actually mean something. Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work is among the best exhibitions I’ve seen there, comforting, of course, but observant, canny, and fresh.

Moses (1860–1961) is, with Robert Frost and Norman Rockwell, the trio of art highfliers that we in southwestern Vermont consider our own. Frost came and went but returned for eternity. Moses’s scenes of country life — making maple syrup; rolling, green landscapes; sparkling snowfalls; quaint white houses; and hearty, busy farm life — are quintessential Vermont, too, but, I hate to admit, she lived a smidge across the state line in Eagle Bridge, N.Y. Still, we claim her as ours, as a New England artist, an old Yankee lady, and as much a part of the cult of Vermont as Rockwell’s Four Freedoms and the Green Mountain Boys.

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Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is one of my favorites for its wonderful collection, majestic building, consistently beautiful presentation, and, more often than not, exhibitions that actually mean something. Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work is among the best exhibitions I’ve seen there, comforting, of course, but observant, canny, and fresh.

Moses (1860–1961) is, with Robert Frost and Norman Rockwell, the trio of art highfliers that we in southwestern Vermont consider our own. Frost came and went but returned for eternity. Moses’s scenes of country life — making maple syrup; rolling, green landscapes; sparkling snowfalls; quaint white houses; and hearty, busy farm life — are quintessential Vermont, too, but, I hate to admit, she lived a smidge across the state line in Eagle Bridge, N.Y. Still, we claim her as ours, as a New England artist, an old Yankee lady, and as much a part of the cult of Vermont as Rockwell’s Four Freedoms and the Green Mountain Boys.