American artist (1892-1942). He was born in
Anamosa, Iowa, and lived in
Cedar Rapids, Minnesota after his father died in 1901. He studied at the
Minneapolis School of Design, the
University of Iowa, and the
Art Institute of Chicago. After serving in the
military, he visited
France,
Germany,
Holland, and
Italy, working on his
painting and studying German and Dutch
primitive painters.
Wood gained
fame as one of the painters of "
The American Scene", or the school of
Regional American Landscape. Along with artists like
Thomas Hart Benton and
John Steuart Curry, they painted scenes of American
rural life in the tradition of the
European masters. Their paintings became popular during the
Great Depression, when the rural subjects proved
comforting during those times of
trouble.
Wood sought to encourage the birth of a
renaissance of
American art, which he believed was too
dependent on
European art. He published a
manifesto in 1935 called "
Revolt against the City", outlining his ideas and calling for a regrouping of regional schools to develop a new form of
realistic painting.
Wood painted the
people and
landscapes of the
Midwest in an
idealized but often
satirical way. One of his best-known works, "
Parson Weems' Fable," depicts
George Washington as a boy admitting to his father that he has chopped down the
cherry tree. However,
Parson Weems, the
inventor of the
tale, is also depicted drawing back a
curtain on the scene as if
slyly admitting to the
falsity of the story. And his "
Daughters of the Revolution," painted after he had a
quarrel with some ladies in charge of a
WWI memorial, depicted
distrustful and
unattractive women posing in front of
Emmanuel Leutz' famous painting "
Washington Crossing the Delaware".
Of course, Wood's best known
painting -- indeed, one of the most
famous American paintings ever -- is "
American Gothic," which he produced in 1930. It featured two
dour farmers, a man holding a
pitchfork and his
spinster daughter, standing in front of their
home. "American Gothic" transformed Wood into a
national celebrity overnight, but as the
Depression ended, the public began to care less for the "American Scene" paintings. Wood was deeply unhappy over the public's
indifference to his work and even tried to start a new
career under an
assumed name before he died at age 50.
Ensuing decades have not diminished the impact of Wood's work on either the world of art or on the American psyche. He is still considered one of the most important American artists. In tribute to him, the state of
Iowa chose one of his paintings, "
Arbor Day," as the basis for their commemorative
state quarter.