Childhood Home (Furnishing Fabric)

Anna Mary Robertson Moses, known as “Grandma Moses,” was one of the most popular American artists of the mid-20th century; however, people often know her work only through reproductions, which were marketed through chinaware, greeting cards, wallpaper, and other home goods. Beginning in 1950, Riverdale Drapery Fabrics introduced a line of printed cotton fabrics showcasing some of Moses’s best-known paintings. Childhood Home captures Moses’ appealing reminiscence of rural life on her family’s farm in upstate New York, with a vibrant patchwork of vignettes showing farmhouse, barns, and people both working industriously and at leisure within the verdant hillside.

Advertisers suggested using these fabrics for upholstery covering, curtains, and cushions; panels of the heavyweight, textured cotton could also be framed like a painted canvas. Moses’s portrayal of an idyllic rural life resonated with American audiences nostalgic for an idealized vision of the nation’s past following World War I. More people could afford such collectables and home goods than her original paintings.