"Grandma Moses (September 7, 1860 - December 13, 1961) (real name Anna Mary Robertson Moses) was a renowned American folk artist. She is often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age.

Painting
Moses began painting in her seventies after abandoning a career in embroidery because of arthritis. Louis J. Caldor, a collector discovered her paintings in a Hoosick Falls, New York drugstore window in 1938. In 1939, an art dealer, Otto Kallir, exhibited some of her work in his Galerie Saint-Etienne in New York. This brought her to the attention of art collectors all over the world, and her paintings were highly sought after. She went on to exhibit her work throughout Europe and in Japan, where her work was particularly well received. She continued her prolific output of paintings, the demand for which never diminished during her lifetime. Grandma Moses painted mostly scenes of rural life. Some of her many paintings were used on the covers of Hallmark cards.

In 1946 her painting The Old Checkered Inn in Summer was featured in the background of a national advertising campaign.

President Harry S. Truman presented her with the Women's National Press Club Award Award for outstanding accomplishment in art in 1949, and in 1951 she appeared on See It Now, a television program hosted by Edward R. Murrow. In 1952 she published her autobiography entitled Grandma Moses: My Life's History.

On her 100th birthday in 1960, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller proclaimed the day "Grandma Moses Day" in her honor.

Legacy
A 1942 piece, The Old Checkered House, 1862 was appraised at the Memphis 2004 Antiques Roadshow. The painting was a summer scene in Geneva, New York, not as common as her winter landscapes. Originally purchased in the 1940s for under $10, the piece was assigned an insurance value of $60,000 by the appraiser, Alan Fausel.

Another of her paintings, Fourth of July, was painted in honor of President Eisenhower and still hangs today in the White House.

The name of the character of "Granny Moses" on the popular 1960s rural comedy television series The Beverly Hillbillies was an homage to Grandma Moses.

-Wikipedia