Carrying on Family Traditions

This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on August 17, 2006 Sign up now!

by Sally Lodge, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 8/17/2006

Will Moses’s sixth picture book—earlier works have included The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Johnny Appleseed and Hansel and Gretel—is a special one for this celebrated folk artist. Next month Philomel will release The Night Before Christmas, which pairs his oil paintings with Clement C. Moore’s beloved poem.

What makes this project so close to the artist’s heart is the fact that decades earlier, his great-grandmother, Grandma Moses, illustrated this same poem with her folk art, when she was well into her 70s. Will Moses has cherished childhood memories of reading that version of The Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve, a tradition that he has continued with his own family.

“There are certainly a lot of memories associated with the reading of the story every Christmas Eve, both when I was young and now with my own kids,” he says. “Also, I remember the stories of Grandma painting some of those paintings and how she was in the very late stages of her life, and there was quite a bit of concern on the part of the publisher that Grandma would not live to finish the book. And then too, over the years, so many people have told me that reading that book had been a tradition in their families and how the memories of their Christmases were founded in the pages of Grandma’s version. All of this went in to making The Night Before Christmas a special and fun book for me.”

Moses confides that initially he had some reservations about creating his own version of this holiday classic since, he explains, “in my mind this was a Grandma Moses story. I know there have been several renditions over the years, but Grandma’s was the version I was raised on and as far as I know the only version in the house, so I thought of it as part of the Grandma Moses legacy.”

What finally persuaded him to tackle the project was the fact that, over the years, so many people had told him that Grandma’s edition was the only one they remembered as a child, yet that volume was either worn out or had become lost. “Enough time had passed that I figured Grandma’s version of the poem was not likely to be reprinted,” he says, “so in a sense, the story had become fair game.”

As a child, Will Moses had more than one artistic inspiration in his family. His artist grandfather, whose studio was a magnet for colorful local characters who often stopped by to chat, insisted that all of his grandchildren try their hand at painting. Will was happy to oblige. Though he observes that Grandma Moses “was probably a quieter and perhaps steadier influence over the years,” he believes it was his grandfather “and his grandfatherly persistence that must be given the bulk of the credit or blame for me painting today. My grandfather was a very patient man who liked kids and liked showing them how to do things and had the knack of being able to successfully encourage them along the walk of life. I think it is safe to say that without the influence of Grandma Moses and Forrest Moses I would not be doing this today.”

Asked about other artists who have inspired his work, Moses mentions his fondness for the paintings of George Henry Durrie, sometimes called the “Snowman,” a mid 19th-century artist whose paintings were replicated in Currier and Ives prints. Yet, he quips, “I guess I am honest enough to admit that I steal inspiration from everyone.”

Though Moses did not consult Grandma’s interpretation of the Moore poem when preparing to create his own, he concedes, “I think there are some images in the Grandma Moses book that I have seen so many times, I could probably paint them without ever looking at the book. So I think it would probably be foolish of me to suggest that Grandma’s influence did not make it into my book.”

Family tradition plays yet another role in Will Moses’s life. He, his wife and three children reside on the same farm in Eagle Bridge, N.Y., where his great-grandmother created her timeless masterpieces, often incorporating the sprawling landscape into her work. “We live in the same drafty old farm house,” he says. “And I do get inspiration from the countryside around here. Sometimes I take it for granted but then other times, especially early in the morning or when the light is just right, it strikes me that this really is a beautiful part of the world. My studio and gallery are just across the yard from the house in a converted cow barn—I have an easy commute to work.”

Again in the vein of family traditions, does Will Moses hope that his own grandchildren and great-grandchildren will someday reach for his version of The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve? “Sure. I have an ego, too,” the artist good-naturedly responds. “It is touching to think that in a few short years, on some snowy Christmas Eve, little Willy may very well say to his Mama or Papa, ‘Who made the pictures for this wonderful old Christmas book?’ And Willy’s parents will point at me, asleep and snoring, propped up by the fire with my jar of whisky and smoldering cigar, and say, ‘Why it was your old Gramp over there. He wasn’t always this way—why at one time he was very productive and even pleasant.’ It makes me dewy-eyed just to think about it.”