Description

Tales Retold by P. Buckley Moss

Introduction

Tales Retold by P. Buckley Moss is a 2000 rare, limited, numbered lithograph centered on one of the oldest ways people share ideas and memories: gathering together around a story. An older female figure sits between two younger figures while a boy perches beside them, all drawn toward the large open book at the center of the composition.

Moss surrounds the group with sweeping, branch-like lines and a warm circular field of gold, taupe, blue, and brown. The result feels intimate and self-contained, as though the figures and their story temporarily occupy a world of their own.

Story Behind the Artwork

The title Tales Retold is especially important to understanding the scene. The image is not simply about someone reading a book; the word retold introduces the larger idea of stories returning from one listener or generation to another.

The figures gather closely enough that the open book becomes their shared point of attention. One child sits beside the reader, another stands close at her side, and the boy leans over the book from the opposite direction. Their different positions create a natural sense of participation rather than a posed group portrait.

The exact relationships among the figures have not been documented in the supplied materials. They may remind collectors of a mother, grandmother, caregiver, siblings, or children listening to a familiar reader, but those relationships should remain interpretation rather than fact.

Symbols & Meaning

The open book can represent storytelling, imagination, literacy, and the preservation of stories.

The closeness of the figures may evoke companionship and shared experience, while the title suggests that stories themselves can connect one time or generation with another.

The large curving forms surrounding the figures create an enclosing visual space. They may be read as branches, vines, or simply decorative linear forms that help separate the storytelling group from the outside world. Rather than assigning them a specific symbolic meaning, it is more accurate to recognize how they contribute to the artwork’s atmosphere of intimacy and imagination.

Artistic Details

Moss uses a circular composition to keep the figures closely connected. The reader occupies the visual center while the children form a compact group around the open book.

The palette combines warm ochre and gold with slate blue, lavender, brown, cream, and black. The warm background creates a sense of enclosure, while the cooler clothing provides enough contrast to distinguish the individual figures.

Line is especially important. Long, curling strokes travel around and behind the group, providing movement in a scene where the people themselves are largely still. The open book introduces another strong geometric form, its angular pages contrasting with the rounded composition and flowing surrounding lines.

Featured Master Collections

Primary Master Collection: Childhood & Storytelling

This is a direct Canada Goose Gallery assignment. Tales Retold is specifically included among the representative works selected for Childhood & Storytelling, alongside Storytime Etching, Learning Through Love, Quiet Time, Spelling Lesson, Favorite Escape, and other works involving books, children, storytelling, imagination, and learning.

Supporting Master Collections: None recommended.

Although the scene can evoke family and intergenerational connection, the exact relationships among the figures are not documented, and Tales Retold is not included in the approved representative list for Family & Legacy or Women Who Built America. Keeping the artwork strongly centered in Childhood & Storytelling avoids forcing a secondary classification.

Decorating Ideas

The warm palette and intimate circular composition make Tales Retold especially appealing for a reading nook, home library, family room, nursery, child’s bedroom, study, or quiet sitting area.

Its softer gold, blue, brown, and lavender tones can complement Cottage, Traditional, Nursery/Storybook, or collected interiors. It would also work beautifully within a grouping devoted to reading and storytelling, where its multi-figure composition provides contrast to Moss works centered on a single reader.

Gift Ideas

Tales Retold is a thoughtful choice for parents, grandparents, teachers, librarians, readers, and collectors who value childhood and storytelling subjects.

It may be particularly meaningful for a grandparent who reads with grandchildren, a teacher or librarian retirement, a family milestone, or someone whose own childhood memories are closely tied to favorite books and stories.

About the Edition

Tales Retold was issued in 2000 as a rare, limited, numbered lithograph on paper.

• Numbered edition: 1,000
• Artist’s proofs: 25
• Image size: 9-1/4 × 9-3/4 inches
• Paper size: 12-3/4 × 13-1/4 inches
• Condition: New, mint condition
• Certificate of Authenticity: Included
• Current Canada Goose Gallery inventory price: $80

Canada Goose Gallery’s approved inventory confirms Product ID 8162, the 2000 date, Rare / Lithograph / Limited / Numbered Edition classification, and current $80 inventory price.

🎨 Fun Fact:

Long before stories depended on printed books, much of what we now call folklore traveled from person to person by being retold. The Smithsonian describes folklore as knowledge, wisdom, stories, beliefs, rhymes, and other traditions passed from generation to generation, often without a printed page or formal instruction. Folk tales, legends, fables, riddles, and children’s verses all participated in this kind of oral transmission. That history gives the title Tales Retold an especially appropriate wider context: retelling is one of the ways stories have survived, changed, and remained meaningful across generations.

🖼️ Collector’s Insight:

Tales Retold is distinctive because Moss makes shared attention the heart of the composition. Unlike Quiet Time and Favorite Escape, where one reader disappears privately into a book, this scene depends on several figures gathering around the same story. Its circular format, warm enclosing color, and sweeping linear forms make the group feel visually sheltered, while the open book provides the clear center. The verified rare, limited and numbered 2000 edition adds concrete edition interest without needing unsupported claims about demand. Within a reading or childhood collection, Tales Retold forms a particularly natural companion to Storytime Etching and Learning Through Love, while offering its own warmer, more compact interpretation of storytelling.

Why Buy from Canada Goose Gallery

Canada Goose Gallery specializes in the art of P. Buckley Moss with attention to accurate edition information, condition, authenticity, and collector education. Tales Retold is documented in the approved gallery inventory as a rare, limited, numbered lithograph and is offered in new, mint condition with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Continue Exploring

Collectors who connect with the shared-storytelling theme of Tales Retold may especially enjoy:

• Storytime Etching which also gathers several figures around a book within a circular composition.
• Learning Through Love where books and discovery become part of a larger childhood scene.

For contrasting views of reading:

• Quiet Time focus on a single absorbed reader.
• Favorite Escape focus on a single absorbed reader.
• Spelling Lesson moves into structured classroom learning.
• Our Library extend the story outward to the community institutions where generations encountered books.

Our Carnegie Library extend the story outward to the community institutions where generations encountered books.

Other verified Childhood & Storytelling works include:

• Grandma’s Story 
• Storyteller 
• Storyteller Revisited
• Mother’s Story
• Reading
• The Evening Hour
• The Old Library Artist Proof
• A Reading Nook
• P. Buckley Moss Rare Prints
• P. Buckley Moss Prints

 

“Some stories become treasures because someone takes the time to tell them again.”