Wednesday 20 August 2014

Grant Wood – Part 2

John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood at the Stone City Art Colony 1933 
photo by John Barry
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa

Grant DeVolson Wood (1891 – 1942) was born in 1891 near Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. His 1930 painting “American Gothic” has become an iconic image of C20th art.

This is part 2 of a 2 – part post on the works of Grant Wood. For full biographical notes, and for earlier works, see part 1 also.




1932 Spring Plowing ( Ploughing )

1932 Study for "Self-Portrait" 
pencil, charcoal and pastel on paper 36.8 x 30.5 cm 
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa


1932-41 Self-Portrait 
oil on masonite board 37.5 x 31.4 cm 
Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa

1933 Adolescence

1940 Adolescence 
oil on masonite board 51 x 29.8 cm 
Abbott Laboratories, IL


1933 Near Sundown 
oil on hardboard 38.1 x 67.3 cm 
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas

1933 Portrait of Nan
When Grant Wood used his sister as the female model for 'American Gothic', he could not have foreseen how deeply her likeness would resonate. His rendering of a plain, stern-faced Iowa woman has a timeless, enigmatic quality that led some viewers to call her the "American Mona Lisa."

Yet the image also stirred up some meanness. "When 'American Gothic' was first shown in 1930, there were critics who said that she looked like the missing link, that her face would turn milk sour," says Wood biographer R. Tripp Evans. As a sort of apology Wood painted 'Portrait of Nan. "He adored Nan. And it's a painting that he felt very close to as well, one of the few of his mature paintings that he kept for himself."



1933 Portrait of Nan 
oil on masonite board 101.6 x 76.2 cm 
Elvehjem Art Museum, University of Wisconsin, Madison


1934 Dinner for Threshers 
oil on hardboard 50.8 x 203.2 cm 
Fine arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

1934 Dinner for Threshers 
detail

1934 Dinner for Threshers 
detail

1934 Dinner for Threshers 
detail
1933 Dinner for Threshers 
graphite, opaque watercolour and coloured pencil on paper 58.7 x 82.9 cm 
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1933 Dinner for Threshers 
graphite, opaque watercolour and coloured pencil on paper 61.3 x 83.8 cm 
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1935 Death on the Ridge Road 
oil on masonite 81.3 x 99.1 cm 
Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa

1935 "Farm on the Hill" 
cover illustration

1935 "Farm on the Hill" Grandma Mending 
crayon, gouache and coloured pencil on paper 66.7 x 49.5 cm 
The Warner Collection of Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

1935 "Farm on the Hill" Animals

1935 "Farm on the Hill" endpaper

1935 "Farm on the Hill" endpaper

1935 O, Chautauqua ( Artwork for Book Jacket ) 
pencil and coloured crayon on paper 39.4 x 36.8 cm 
Private Collection

1935 Return from Bohemia 
crayon, pencil and gouache on paper 59.7 x 50.8 cm 
Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa

1935 Breaking the Prairie Sod
Iowa State College President Raymond Hughes commissioned the triptych mural, which depicts the beginnings of tillage and the founding of the State by pioneers in the 1840s.
Themes portrayed in the mural include the advancement of agricultural technology through the introduction of new ploughs in the 1870s, the founding of Iowa State College, and the uncertain future that was ahead ahead of Iowa and the nation in the late 1930s (World war II, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression) as depicted by ominous clouds on the skyscape.
Wood incorporated three Abraham Lincoln type figures, portrayed in youth, middle age and maturity. The inclusion of Lincoln illustrated the former President's importance to the nation and to Iowa.



1935-39 Breaking the Prairie Sod, Iowa State 
triptych oil on canvas; centre panel 335.3 x 701 cm 
University, Ames, Iowa

1935-39 Study for Breaking the Prairie Sod 
coloured pencil, chalk and graphite on paper 57.8 x 203.8 cm 
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York


1936 Breaking Ground 
oil 60 x 75 cm

1936 Spring Turning 
oil on masonite 46.4 x 101.9 cm 
Reynolds House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC

1936 The Perfectionist 
graphite, black and white crayon, watercolour, black in and opaque white on brown wove paper 65 x 50.7 cm 
Fine arts Museums of San Francisco, CA

1936-37 Booster 
charcoal, pencil and chalk on paper 50 x 40.6 cm 
Private Collection

1936-37 Main Street Mansion 
charcoal, pencil and chalk on paper 50 x 40.6 cm 
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York

1936-37 Sentimental Yearner 
crayon, pencil and gouache on paper 52 x 40.6 cm 
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota

1936-37 The Radical 
charcoal, pencil and chalk on paper 50 x 40.6 cm
 Private Collection

1937 Honorary Degree 
lithograph 30.2 x 17.7 cm 
Museum of Art Ball State University, Muncie, IN

1937 Seed Time and Harvest 
lithograph 19 x 30.7 cm

1937 Tree Planting 
lithograph 21.3 x 27.6 cm 
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1937 Village Slums 
charcoal, pencil and chalk on paperboard 53.6 x 40.6 cm 
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

1938 January 
lithograph 30.5 x 40.7 cm ( image ) 
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

1938 July Fifteenth 
lithograph on cream wove paper 30.5 x 40.6 cm

1938 Plowing ( Ploughing ) on Sunday ( Artwork for a book jacket ) 
conté crayon, ink and gouache on paper 58.4 x 53.3 cm 
RISD Museum, Providence, RI

1938 Tame Flowers 
hand coloured lithograph 16.6 x 25.2 cm

1938 Vegetables 
hand coloured lithograph 22.8 x 30.4 cm

1938 Wild Flowers 
hand coloured lithograph 16.6 x 24.5 cm

1939 Fruits 
hand-coloured lithograph 18.8 x 24.8 cm


1939 Fertility 
lithograph on ivory wove paper 22.8 x 30.2 cm ( image )

1939 Haying 
oil on canvas 32.8 x 37.7 cm 
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1939 In the Spring 
lithograph 30.5 x 40.4 cm

1939 March
 lithograph 22.9 x 30.2 cm

1939 Midnight Alarm 
lithograph on wove paper 30.3 x 17.7 cm 
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1939 New Road 
oil on canvas on paperboard mounted on hardboard 33 x 37.9 cm 
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1939 Parson Weem's Fable 
oil on canvas 97.5 x 127.3 cm 
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

1939 Shrine Quartet
 lithograph 30.2 x 20.3 cm 
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1939 Sultry Night 
lithograph 23.2 x 28.8 cm ( image )

1940 Approaching Storm 
lithograph 44.5 x 31.8 cm 
Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa

1940 Family Doctor 
lithograph on off-white wove paper 25.3 x 30.1 cm 
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1940 February 
lithograph 22.6 x 30 cm ( image ) 
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

1940-41 January 
oil on masonite 45.7 x 60.1 cm 
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

1941 December Afternoon 
lithograph 22.9 x 30.2 cm ( image )

1941 Iowa Cornfield 
study

1941 Iowa Landscape 
study

1941 Spring in the Country 
oil on masonite 58.4 x  54.6 cm 
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Iowa

1942 Spring in Town

Grant Wood's last painting was published on the cover of Saturday Evening Post April 18 1942.


1942 Spring in Town 
"Saturday Evening Post"

1942 Spring in Town 
oil on masonite 66 x 54.6 cm 
Sheldon Swope Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana


1 comment:

  1. Such a great art and nice paintings, i like it
    This blog is very nice, i like it

    Metal Planters

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