Halloween

Copied Grandma Moses, Halloween, 1955, oil on high-density fiberboard, 25 7⁄8 × 32 × 2 1⁄2 in. (65.7 × 81.3 × 6.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2024.37.5, © Grandma Moses Properties Co., NY

Artwork Details

Title
Halloween
Artist
Date
1955
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
25 7⁄8 × 32 × 2 1⁄2 in. (65.7 × 81.3 × 6.4 cm)
Copyright
© Grandma Moses Properties Co., NY
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on high-density fiberboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • Landscape
  • Ceremony — holiday — Halloween
  • Architecture Exterior — farm — barn
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — farmhouse
  • Dress — costume — Halloween costume
Object Number
2024.37.5
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2024.37.5

Artwork Description

Moses’s relatively rare depictions of All Hallows’ Eve are among her most striking celebration paintings. In this work, also distinctive for taking place at night, Moses shows an extraordinary ability to wield light and color to create an evocative seasonal scene. The soft pastel colors she favored in the 1940s here shift to crisp jewel tones, capturing the temperature and mood of a moonlit late October evening, when barriers between the earthly and spiritual realms are thought to be most permeable. 

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