| Grant Wood was born in Iowa where he spent | | | | and staring eyes. |
| most of his life. As a young child he loved drawing | | | | Wood became one of the major figures of |
| with charcoal and after graduating from high | | | | Regionalism, a movement which flourished in the |
| school he studied art in Minneapolis and Chicago. | | | | 1930s not only in Wood’s Middle West but |
| During World War I he did camouflage work for | | | | all over the United States. |
| the Army. Then he became an art teacher. At | | | | In 1930 Wood became very popular with |
| that point he had already found the essential | | | | ‘Stone City, Iowa’, the painting of |
| imagery of his future works: rolling landscapes, | | | | an almost deserted city that had been prosperous |
| folk architecture and farmers. However he still | | | | in the artist’s youth, before the |
| painted in a manner that was not particularly | | | | Depression, and ‘American Gothic’ |
| original, and which could be called | | | | (opposite) which was highly praised by everybody |
| pseudo-impressionistic. He went to Paris in 1923, | | | | for its originality and technical quality, except by |
| but it is, in fact, his stay in Munich in 1928 that | | | | Iowa farmers who saw in the picture an unfair |
| really influenced his art. In Germany Wood | | | | caricature. |
| became fascinated by the work of the Flemish | | | | Wood’s later works were also very |
| primitives particularly that of Memling and that by | | | | successful and in 1934 he was appointed assistant |
| the portraiture of Holbein and Durer. From then | | | | professor at the University of Iowa. Along with |
| onwards he painted his native Iowa with | | | | his teaching career he went on painting both for |
| deliberate simplicity, clearcut realism, sharp | | | | his own pleasure and for the Roosevelt |
| detailing, precise clarity of form, austere poses | | | | Administration who wanted to promote art. |