December

Image Not Available
Copied Grandma Moses, December, 1942, oil on canvas, 18 1⁄2 × 22 in. (47.0 × 55.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Kallir Family in Memory of Otto Kallir, 2025.24

Artwork Details

Title
December
Artist
Date
1942
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
18 1⁄2 × 22 in. (47.0 × 55.9 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the Kallir Family in Memory of Otto Kallir
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Animal — horse
  • Animal — dog
  • Animal — sheep
  • Figure group
  • Landscape — season — winter
  • Landscape — weather — snow
  • Recreation — sport and play — hockey
  • Architecture Exterior — farm — barn
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — farmhouse
Object Number
2025.24
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2025.24

Artwork Description

The widely circulated reproductions that made Moses famous tended to feature the hustle and bustle of rural activities. The subtler aspects of her work, especially her quiet depictions of weather and the seasons, were harder to replicate. December is a painting best appreciated in person. The palette is relatively subdued, dominated by ominous gray clouds. One can almost taste the damp chill generated by the approaching winter storm.
 
"When you step up to a major Moses," observed the New Yorker's art critic in 2001, "near enough to behold cannily varied, unfussy textures and summary colors . . . the picture's scale turns vast and intimate simultaneously. Beauty happens."

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