The Old Automobile

Copied Grandma Moses, The Old Automobile, 1944, oil on high-density fiberboard, 27 × 30 × 2 1⁄4 in. (68.6 × 76.2 × 5.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Kallir Family in Memory of Hildegard Bachert, 2023.45, © Grandma Moses Properties Co., New York

Artwork Details

Title
The Old Automobile
Artist
Date
1944
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
27 × 30 × 2 1⁄4 in. (68.6 × 76.2 × 5.7 cm)
Copyright
© Grandma Moses Properties Co., New York
Credit Line
Gift of the Kallir Family in Memory of Hildegard Bachert
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on high-density fiberboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture — vehicle — carriage
  • Animal — horse
  • Landscape — farm
  • Landscape — road
  • Architecture — vehicle — automobile
  • Figure group
Object Number
2023.45

Artwork Description

By 1944, Americans had fully embraced the automobile. In this era of rapid change, Moses witnessed the world of her childhood giving way to a different one. Here, Moses depicts the old and the new coming, quite literally, face-to-face. "The iron age came on very fast," she remarked.

The scene may reflect on a moment in 1913 when she and her husband--then in their fifties--purchased their first car, an Overland, made by the Willys-Overland Motor Company. At the time, Willys-Overland was the second-largest American carmaker, behind Ford, but the manufacturer would, like many others, fold during the Great Depression. 

Exhibition Label for Grandma Moses: A Good Day's Work October 24, 2025 -- July 12, 2026