Albert Webster Davies (1889–1967) is one of the most recognized names in American folk art. A New Hampshire native who took up painting at 65, he became known as the "Male Grandma Moses" for his naive, meticulously detailed scenes of 19th-century New England life. His work was represented by Kennedy Galleries in New York — one of the oldest and most prestigious American art galleries — and was exhibited at the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum at Colonial Williamsburg in 1965. His auction record stands at $6,250.
This signed oil is a figurative subject — rarer in Davies's output than his landscapes and architectural scenes, which makes it a more unusual find. The composition shows a young woman in profile wearing a rust-red dress and holding wild clover, flanked by neat rows of stylized thistles. The flat perspective, simplified forms, and muted colonial palette are characteristic of Davies's mid-century homage to 19th-century theorem and stencil painting. There is a quiet, almost graphic quality to the thistle border that holds up in both traditional and contemporary settings.
The painting is housed in its original rustic, weather-washed wood frame and arrives ready to hang.
Details
Artist: Albert Webster Davies (American, 1889–1967)
Medium: Oil on board, signed
Subject: Young woman in profile, rust-red dress, wild clover, thistle border
Frame: Original rustic wood frame, weather-washed patina
Framed size: 22.25″ tall × 18.5″ wide
Sight size: Approximately 17″ tall × 13″ wide
Condition Painting surface stable — light age specks and a few faint rubs in the sky field, no flaking. Frame is solid with scattered small nail holes and warm patina consistent with age. Ready to hang as-is.
Placement This works above a Shaker peg rail flanked by quilts, as an anchor on a gallery wall of botanical prints, or on its own against a white wall where the flat geometry reads almost graphic. The thistle border echoes early American stencil work and ties naturally to other decorative pieces from the same tradition.
